Bayareareporter october 30 2014 by Bay Area Reporter

Pride in Hotlanta

ARTS

Leslie Uggams, live

Monster Mash

The

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Supes OK PrEP funding

Vol. 44 • No. 44 • October 30-November 5, 2014

E. Bay sees surge in out candidates by Matthew S. Bajko

by Liz Highleyman

he San Francisco Board of Super visors Tuesday approved a supplemental budget request to help people access pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, for prevention of Rick Gerharter HIV infection. The measure, Supervisor introduced by gay David Campos District 9 Supervisor David Campos in September, allocates $301,600 to hire “navigators,” counselors who will help people obtain PrEP through existing channels such as private insurance, Medi-Cal, or Gilead Science’s patient assistance programs. The funds will not directly pay for PrEP medications. “PrEP has the potential to save hundreds or thousands of lives,” said Campos. “San Francisco must continue to take a leadership role in See page 17 >>

Zombies stalk the Castro!

Rick Gerharter

t might have been a small turnout for the annual Zombie Walk Saturday, October 25 that left from Jane Warner Plaza and traversed the Castro, but those

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

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!

who stalked the crowded sidewalks were as fearful and full of dread as any zombie can be. For Halloween happenings, see the BARtab listings.

or the first time in recent memory there are more out candidates running for political office in Alameda County in next week’s election than there are in San Francisco, which is both a city and a county. Based on interviews with leaders of LGBT political clubs, and more candidates self-disclosing their sexual orientation, there are 11 out candidates running for local offices in Alameda County in the November 4 election compared to the 10 out candidates seeking public office in San Francisco. The East Bay county, which includes the cities of Oakland and Berkeley, may be ahead of San Francisco by only one candidate. Nonetheless, it is reflective of the Bay Area’s changing LGBT demographics and a widening of the LGBT community’s electoral strength. “I think we are seeing what is going to become the new normal. We are going to see more out LGBT candidates running in the East Bay,” said gay Oakland resident Sean Sullivan, who lost his 2008 bid for a city council seat and this See page 7 >>

Patrons surprised at lesbian bar’s closure by Yael Chanoff

he Lexington Club, known simply as the Lex, is more than just a bar catering to lesbians. At the moment, for instance, it’s also an art gallery. Work from multiple artists hangs on the cherry red walls. The exhibition, called Baggage, was curated by Queer Cultural Center artistic director Pamela Peniston. “Little did we know as we assembled the art for Baggage – which partially addresses the changes happening in San Francisco and the shifting of the neighborhoods – that this would be our last show,” Peniston said. Nobody knew. Lexington Club owner Lila Thirkield announced October 23 via Facebook that after 18 years, the bar will shut down. “I always felt like maybe we were exempt from what was happening in the neighborhood,” said Lex employee Dean Bonilla. “I could have been lying to myself. I didn’t want to ever think that this place that I love so much would ever be taken away from me. Even though I’ve been evicted from this neighborhood a couple years ago, losing a bar almost feels a little worse than just being evicted from my home. Because it’s a community space, it’s a staple for our community,” Bonilla said. The week before the announcement, Professor

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }

Alana Perino

Lebian bar the Lexington Club will close after the holidays.

Nan Alamilla Boyd was teaching her San Francisco State students about the Lexington Club. They were discussing “Boys of the Lex,” an essay about gender identity by Gayle M. Salamon. “That’s what’s really so wonderful and vital about the Lex, say, as opposed to Wild Side West or other spaces. You see that kind of resistance, gender transgression as part of the See page 18 >>

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AIDS groups, app reps discuss outreach by Seth Hemmelgarn

Users supportive

ookup apps like Grindr and REALTOR®,Top Producer Scruff are working with the San Top 10% Citywide Francisco AIDS Foundations, and 415.225.7743 rachel@theswanngroupsf.com other health organizations to educate Rachel Swann BRE License # 01860456 users about HIV and other diseases, Rachel Swann REALTOR®,Top Producer TheSwannGroupSF.com REALTOR®,Top Producer Top 10% Citywide encourage testing, and reduce stigma. Top 10% Citywide 415.225.7743 415.225.7743 SFAF released a report last week rachel@theswanngroupsf.com rachel@theswanngroupsf.com following a meeting it had with BRE License # 01860456 BRE License # 01860456 TheSwannGroupSF.com representatives of hookup apps TheSwannGroupSF.com and websites and people from the Centers for Disease Control and REV 2014 Rachel Castro Festival Guide ad.indd 1 9/14/14 5:12 PM Prevention. Tim Patriarca, SFAF’s executive 14 Rachel Castro Festival Guide ad.indd 1 9/14/14 5:12 PM director of gay and bi men’s health ADDRESSING THE UNIQUE and wellness, said in an interview that the meeting was “the largest FINANICAL NEEDS OF THE group of gay dating and hookup LGBT COMMUNITY. websites to get together with HIV REV 2014 Rachel Castro Festival Guide ad.indd 1 9/14/14 5:12 PM and STI prevention leaders.” Gay UCSF researcher Dan WohlAs members of the LGBT community, we have a deep feiler, another meeting organizer, understanding of the financial challenges we face – Courtesy Scruff said, “We know these dating sites and of the solutions that can help you meet those reach millions more people than we Scruff co-founder Jason Marchant challenges, too! ever will in public health.” Rachel Swann At the September meeting, site REALTOR®,Top Producer and app owners said they would “Our customers are the gay Gregg TopMichael 10% Citywide promote testing for HIV and other community and being gay men Financial Advisor 415.225.7743 sexually transmitted infections and ourselves, these are issues that are CA. License # 0E90606 rachel@theswanngroupsf.com work with public health leaders to very relevant to us,” said Scruff BRE License # 01860456 spread updated information, acco-founder Jason Marchant in an Anthony Trias TheSwannGroupSF.com cording to the report on the “Buildinterview. Financial Advisor ADDRESSING THE UNIQUE FINANCIAL NEEDS ing healthy online communities” In an email, Grindr spokesman CA. License # 0G22124 OF THE LGBT COMMUNITY. meeting. Jeffrey Davidson said the new partAs a member of the LGBT community, I have a The Prudential Insurance They also said they would work to nership with SFAF and others “is deep understanding of the financial challenges we face – and of the solutions that can help us Company of America reduce HIV stigma. Possible methjust an extension of the great work meet those challenges. ods include allowing users to choose we’ve already done.” Call me today and let’s discuss how you180 can Montgomery St, Suite 1900 meet those challenges, too. San Francisco, CA 94104 profile options such as “undetectHe said one of the app’s guideJoe Sample, Designations per stationery guidelines Approved Title Office: 415.486.3043 able” and “poz-friendly.” lines is that users aren’t allowed to Agency Name AR/CA Insurance License Number 123456 michael.gregg@prudential.com Scruff is one of the apps that’s alThe Prudential Insurance Company of America include “sexually explicit references 1234 Maple Avenue, Suite 222, Floor 3 www.prudential/us/michael.gregg Anywhere, ST 12345 ready taken steps to educate people. or text that promotes unsafe sex” in Office 123-123-1234 ext 1111 Fax 222-222-2222 In August, the app started Betheir profiles. Mobile 123-123-3333 REV 2014 Rachel Castro Festival Guide ad.indd 1 9/14/14 5:12 PM joe.sample@email.com www.url.com nevolads, a program that offers free According to SFAF, Kaiser Family banner ads for public health orgaFoundation survey findings released nizations and nonprofits. (More inin September show that only three © 2014 Prudential its related entities. Prudential, logo, the Rock symbol and Prudential, the Prudential logo, theFinancial, Rock symbol andInc. Bring and Your Challenges are service marks of Prudential Financial,the Inc.,Prudential and its related entities. 0259452-00001-00 Bring Your Challenges are service marks of Prudential Financial, Inc., and its related entities, registered in many formation is available at ads.scruff. in 10 gay and bisexual men say they jurisdictions worldwide. 0267424-00002-00 com.) got an HIV test within the last year. REV 2014 Rachel Castro Festival Guide ad.indd 1

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Make Castro your home sweet home!

A couple men who use hookup sites expressed support for seeing more outreach. “Not talking about it means we’re not going to talk about the things important to protect one’s self,” said a 53-year-old Scruff user from San Francisco who didn’t want his name published because of his work. The man, who’s living with HIV and has an undetectable viral load, said he “almost never” uses condoms and is “up front” about his status. On Scruff, he has a plus sign near his name, and he discloses more information in his profile. He said being honest about his status has led other people to ask him questions about HIV. Ron, 49, a Grindr user who works in San Francisco, said more outreach is “a good idea.” “People get lost, myself included,” in the app, said Ron, who didn’t want his last name published because of his job. “You can get so titillated by the comments” and “lose track of reality.” Ron’s HIV-negative and always uses a condom, and he said he’s “absolutely stunned” by younger people on the site who want to bareback. As previously reported in the Bay Area Reporter, health workers in San Mateo and Marin counties have been using fake profiles on hookup apps to do outreach work, but Patriarca indicated SFAF wouldn’t use such a strategy, since it’s not “the most effective way to do prevention work.” The “Building Healthy Communities” report is available at http://bit. ly/HealthyOnlineCommunities.t

not Prop. G is not the law envisioned by the late Harvey Milk. Milk’s measure was carefully crafted while Prop. G is riddled with loopholes and leaves many vulnerable to this massive housing tax. Milk’s measure levied a fee on profits gained by owners.1

Prop. G imposes a tax of up to 24% on the total sales price of residential property.2

Milk’s measure specifically excluded single-family homes with in-law units.

Prop. G affects residential properties with 2–30 units, meaning that the estimated 50,000 single-family homes with in-law units could be subjected to this tax.

Milk’s measure exempted owners 62 or older, understanding that many seniors use their homes as retirement nest eggs.

Prop. G does not protect seniors. It does exempt the tens of thousands of residents in buildings with 31 or more units, making them a target for exactly the kind of “flipping” the authors say they want to stop.

San Franciscans deserve thoughtful solutions to our housing crisis, not Prop. G. Find out why the Bay Area Reporter, the San Francisco Chronicle, Supervisors Scott Wiener, Mark Farrell and Katy Tang, San Francisco Alliance for Jobs and Sustainable Growth, City Democratic Club, Noe Valley Democratic Club and many others say no on Prop. G.

On Nov. 4 or with Your Absentee Ballot:

VOTE NO ON PROP. G To learn more, go to StoptheHousingTax.com

Paid for by Stop the Housing Tax, No on G, a coalition of homeowners, renters and real estate organizations. Major funding by National Association of Realtors, California Association of Realtors Issues Mobilization PAC Committee and San Francisco Association of Realtors, 425 Market Street, 26th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105, FPPC #1369949

File No. 120-78-1, Ordinance No 315-67, 6/01/78. 2Read the full text of Prop. G on the City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ website at sfbos.org/ftp/uploadedfiles/bdsupvrs/committees/materials/rls071014_140695.pdf.

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A• fun place to play… 2 Bay Area Reporter • October 30-November 5, 2014

RE-ELECT SUPERVISOR

Wiener Scott

Improving & Investing In Our Transit System

A daily Muni rider himself, Scott Wiener consistently advocates for increased investment in Muni. Scott successfully fought to add 50 new hybrid buses to Muni’s fleet and spearheaded legislation approving the purchase of new Light Rail Vehicles, which will increase the number of 3 and 4 car trains in the subway to ease overcrowding. Scott is working to ensure our Transit First City provides people with choices that are safe and reliable, including public transit, car sharing, safe bike access, improved taxi and ride sharing service, and a safe walkable neighborhood.

Taking On Our Housing Crisis

Scott Wiener is working to address our housing affordability crisis through a number of measures including successful legislation allowing for the addition of new in-law units, and giving developers an incentive to add new affordable units in their projects. Scott is a staunch supporter of rent control and authored legislation that allows for the creation of new rent-controlled units.

Castro Street Improvements

Working with the community, Scott obtained funding to widen the Castro Street sidewalks. The new sidewalks, lighting, and street trees, as well as an improved Jane Warner Plaza, will improve an already incredible street.

Creating The Noe Valley Town Square

When it looked as though the site of the Noe Valley Farmers’ Market was going to be lost to development, Scott teamed with the community to save this public space, and he authored legislation to purchase the site as a permanent town square. Thanks to tremendous community effort the site is almost ready for conversion to a beautiful plaza for the farmers market and other community uses.

LGBT Senior & Youth Services and HIV Funding

Scott is an unwavering advocate for HIV services in San Francisco and has consistently and successfully fought to keep full funding in the City’s budget despite massive federal HIV cuts. Scott co-authored legislation to create the LGBT Senior Task Force, which recently issued it recommendations showing a significant need for senior housing, as well as ensuring senior facilities are LGBT-friendly. Scott is now drafting legislation to implement those recommendations.

Scott is working to ensure LGBT youth have access to housing, job training, healthcare, and other services to help them succeed in our community. Scott has repeatedly secured funding specifically for the needs of LGBT at-risk youth in our neighborhood.

For more information visit www.scottwiener.com

Paid for by Re-elect Supervisor Scott Wiener 2014. PAID POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT

<< Community News

4 • Bay Area Reporter • October 30-November 5, 2014

Tenants, advocates bemoan SF housing crisis

by David-Elijah Nahmod

ebar.com

lesbian couple facing eviction underscored the difficult challenges facing many LGBT-identified people who wish to stay in San Francisco amid skyrocketing rents and an escalating eviction crisis. Oona Hanawalt, 33, and Alison Panko, 39, whose ongoing battles with their landlord were reported in the Bay Area Reporter this summer, spoke during a panel discussion that was part of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center’s Economic Justice Week. The couple, who said they’ve been together eight years, were on a panel entitled “The State of Affordable Housing at the LGBT Center” that was sponsored by the center and the San Francisco Human Rights Commission’s LGBT Advisory Committee. The women are fighting their landlord, Irma Encinas, over her claims that they had illegal subtenants. People in the audience of about 100 gasped as Hanawalt and Panko spoke of the security cameras their landlord keeps pointed at their front door and windows, and of incidents in which they said the landlord would sit in a parked car across the street from their Potrero area residence “watching” them. “A judge ordered us to remove our rainbow flag because it was blocking the camera,” Hanawalt said at the October 20 discussion. Both women talked about the emotional and financial devastation of the landlord’s attempts to evict them from the home they love so that the rent can be doubled or tripled. The women said that they were making plans to leave not only the apartment, but the Bay Area.

VOTE NOVEMBER 4

Jane Philomen Cleland

Tommi Avicolli Mecca, right, talks about queer homeless youth at a housing affordability panel that also included, from left, Clair Farley, Bill Hirsh, tenants Oona Hanawalt and Alison Panko, Jeff Buckley, and Kate Hartley.

“We fought this battle because we saw so many people pushed out of their housing,” Panko said. “Many were undocumented or people of color. The city needs to work on more legislation to protect us. There are no consequences for what landlords do.” Hanawalt urged people to read the fine print before signing any lease. Signing something you don’t understand, she warned, could lead to a swift eviction. Neither Encinas nor her attorney, Brenda Cruz Keith, returned messages seeking comment. Panelist Clair Farley, associate director of economic development at the LGBT Center, addressed the issues that many transgender people face. “Through our economic program we engage with people,” Farley, a transwoman, said. “We need to address how we can connect people to jobs that help them stay in the City. We need to hold the tech companies accountable in hiring.” Tommi Avicolli Mecca, of LGBTQ Economic Justice and a longtime queer housing activist, expressed anger that enough wasn’t being done.

“We are a community in crisis,” he said, raising his voice. “Two Williams Institute studies show that poverty in our community is as great as, sometimes greater than, other communities.” Avicolli Mecca was referring to the Williams Institute think tank at UCLA School of Law, which in a July 2012 report, “Serving Our Youth,” found that LGBT youth represent approximately 40 percent of the clientele served by drop-in centers, street outreach programs, and housing programs. The figure was based on 381 respondents who completed an online survey, representing 354 agencies throughout the country that took part in the LGBT Homeless Youth Provider Survey. Avicolli Mecca also said that there have been 2,000 evictions in the Castro since 1997, and that this number doesn’t include buyouts or threats of violence. “What does it matter if we have a rainbow walk or nice pretty plaques in the newly widened sidewalks if long term queer tenants are being See page 18 >>

LGBT workplace advocates gather in SF by Yael Chanoff

JOIN

THE ALICE B. TOKLAS DEMOCRATIC CLUB,

STATE SENATOR MARK LENO,

SUPERVISOR SCOTT WIENER AND LGBT COMMUNITY LEADERS:

RE-ELECT SUPERVISOR

MALIA COHEN TO DISTRICT 10

Paid for by Re-elect Malia Cohen for Supervisor 2014 • FPPC #1359986 • 300 MONTGOMERY ST. #789, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104

ext week, 3,000 people will flock to the Moscone Center for the 16th annual Out and Equal Summit on Workplace Equality. “We’re celebrating the advancement of the LGBT movement,” said Selisse Berry, founder and executive director of Out and Equal Workplace Advocates, which hosts the conference. “We’re also reminding people that there are states where you can still be fired for being LGBT.” In 32 states, employees can be fired based solely on their gender identity. In 29 of those states sexual orientation isn’t protected either. Out and Equal advocates to change this, while working inside companies, including some of the world’s most powerful corporations, to improve protections and the work environment for LGBT employees. The summit – November 3-6 – will be four days loaded with information on workplace equality, along with entertainment from the likes of Martha Wash and Thea Austin, and keynote speeches by Lee Daniels, Olympia Dukakis, and Billie Jean King. Corporate non-discrimination policies have improved dramatically since Out and Equal was founded. In 1996, 5 percent of companies on the Fortune 500 list had policies that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation, according to Out and Equal communications director Joel Engardio. Today, that number is 90 percent. Sixty percent of Fortune 500

Rick Gerharter

Out and Equal Executive Director Selisse Berry speaks at last year’s summit.

companies extend these protections to gender identity. Workplace equality efforts advance as more states legalize marriage equality. Last June, the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, and 32 states now grant federal marriage benefits to samesex couples. The new victories are coming fast – “It could be 35, depending on when you go to press,” Engardio said. Some Out and Equal summit panels will address this new reality, including “The Post-DOMA Era” and “The Cost of Inconsistency.” At the latter, Out and Equal will reveal the results of a study that surveyed corporations about how much money they’re losing dealing with varying marriage equality laws in different states. “Right now we have a patchwork of states that allow same-sex marriage, and some don’t allow it. If you’re a company doing business in See page 18 >>

SmArT, eFFeCTive LeADerSHiP Vote with pride By noVeMBer 4

daVid Chiu

SCott wiener▼

ASSembly, DISTrIcT 17

SuPervISOr, DISTrIcT 8

Mark Farrell SuPerviSor, DiSTriCT 2

katy tang

SuPerviSor, DiSTriCT 4

Malia Cohen

Mark Murphy ▼ BoArD oF eDuCATion

SuPerviSor, DiSTriCT 10

CarMen Chu

ASSeSSor-reCorDer

niCk JoSeFowitz BArT BoArD

Carol kingSley

SuPerior CourT JuDGe

propoStion e CreATinG A HeALTHy SAn FrAnCiSCo

aMy BaCharaCh CiTy CoLLeGe

rodrigo SantoS CiTy CoLLeGe

thea SelBy

CiTy CoLLeGe

USe the FUll alice endorSementS below when yoU vote San FranciSco candidateS Assessor-Recorder: Carmen Chu

board oF edUcation

Supervisor, District 2: Mark Farrell

city college board oF trUSteeS Amy Bacharach, 2-year seat Rodrigo Santos, 4-year seat

Supervisor, District 4: Katy Tang Supervisor, District 8: Scott Wiener▼ Supervisor, District 10: Malia Cohen Superior Court Judge, Office 20: Carol Kingsley BART Board, District 8: Nick Josefowitz

Mark Murphy▼

Thea Selby, 4-year seat

State candidateS Governor: Jerry Brown

local ballot meaSUreS

State ballot meaSUreS

YES

PROP A: Transportation Bond

YES

PROP 1: Water Bond

YES

PROP B: Muni Funding

YES

PROP 2: Rainy Day Fund

YES

PROP C: Children’s Programs

YES

PROP D: Retirement Benefits

PROP 45: Make Health Insurers Justify Rates

Treasurer: John Chiang

YES

PROP E: Creating a Healthy SF!

NO POSITION

PROP 46: No Position

Attorney General: Kamala Harris

YES

PROP F: Pier 70 Redevelopment

YES

PROP 47: Reform Sentencing

NO POSITION

PROP G: No Position

YES

PROP H: Against Playgrounds

PROP 48: Approve Tribal Gaming Compromise

YES

PROP I: For Playgrounds

YES

PROP J: Raise Minimum Wage

YES

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

David Chiu

Board of Equalization, District 2: Fiona Ma

State Assembly, District 19: Phil Ting

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tom Torlakson

▼ indicates that the candidate is LGBT

Get Involved, Get Our Endorsements

www.AliceBToklas.org

Building Coalitions in San Francisco for Over 40 Years

Paid for by Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club PAC FPPC #842018.

<< Open Forum

6 • Bay Area Reporter • October 30-November 5, 2014

Volume 44, Number 44 October 30-November 5, 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

Voters see above the low road

he election is less than a week away and, as usual, some campaigns and independent groups supporting candidates are taking the low road by issuing hit pieces. While they may not be October Surprises, these negative attacks are built around a kernel of truth and then extrapolated into character assassination. Exhibit one is a mailer by Nick Josefowitz, a Democrat running for BART board who hopes to unseat Republican incumbent James Fang. Josefowitz’s mailer includes Fang among “The 5 Most Corrupt Politicians in San Francisco History” because of a 23-year old campaign finance violation for which Fang paid some $22,000 in fines. And who is Fang compared to? Well, there’s Eugene Schmitz, a former mayor who served five years in San Quentin for accepting bribes; Frank Egan, a public defender who served 25 years in prison for murdering an elderly woman who had named him in her will; Russell Wolden Jr., a city assessor convicted of taking bribes in exchange for not collecting property taxes; and suspended state Senator Leland Yee, who’s been indicted on federal corruption charges. When compared to those characters, Fang’s funneling of $2,000 to thenMayor Frank Jordan’s 1991 campaign is small potatoes. What’s more, that happened more than two decades ago. San Francisco voters are smart enough to see

through such desperate tactics. Josefowitz, a newcomer to San Francisco politics, has employed a scorched earth strategy throughout his campaign. He has tried to make much of Fang being the city’s only elected Republican while ignoring that Fang has been an effective member of the BART board and has garnered support from Democratic heavyweights like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democratic Party Chair John Burton, and Mayor Ed Lee. The Bay Area Reporter also endorsed Fang earlier this month. Among independent expenditure groups, both candidates for Assembly have been tied to not-so-progressive causes. In the case of gay candidate David Campos,

groups supporting candidate David Chiu have tried to portray Campos as being in the hands of “big oil” because he supports community choice aggregate for public power. Major funding for that mailer was provided by tech investors Reid Hoffman and Ron Conway. Labor unions, including the California Nurses Association political action committee and Service Employees International Union Local 1000 poured money into a mailer opposing Chiu, saying that since a former political firm he co-founded did contract work for the Republicans, therefore Chiu supported former President George W. Bush. Those are “elephant bones” in Chiu’s closet, the mailer states, referring to the GOP connection. It goes on to conclude that Chiu is against samesex marriage, is anti-choice, and anti-climate change. None of those allegations for either candidate are accurate. We endorsed Chiu in the Assembly race, but don’t like the attack mailers on either side. These attack mailers are not helpful in clarifying the candidates’ position on the issues. But because all the candidates differ little on the issues, some of them, like Josefowitz, and the outside groups, resort to shorthand ad hominem attacks that obscure the real politicians and their effectiveness. Ultimately, the mailers deprive voters of real discussion and do not focus on the issues. There are no winners when elections sink to this level. The voters should be smart enough to see through these smear tactics.t

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

Get out and party on Halloween

ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith

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by Heklina alloween plans? No? Girl, what’s your excuse for not going out this year? Sure, they say that sending a drag queen out on Halloween is like sending a politician out on Election Day. There is a ring of truth to this of course – I mean, what’s the point, and what else is there to be said, when everyone is dressing up? I could also toss out the weak “Oh, it’s amateur night” excuse that many queens use for staying in on October 31. But that doesn’t seem quite true in San Francisco, a city stuffed with creative people falling over themselves to out-do one another with the most topical (expect lots of AHS Freakshow and Ebola references this year. Miley Cyrus from the VMAs and Orange is the New Black? So 2013), shocking, and creative looks. The real reason many choose to stay in on Halloween night? Well, it can be scary out there, and not in a good way. To say that Halloween has always resonated with the gay community (and in particular, gay men) is like saying bread can be sliced, or that Britney Spears is auto-tuned. It’s obvious, and the reasons why are numerous. The Wikipedia page on Halloween in the Castro just scratches the surface: There are differing ideas on why LGBT communities are attracted to the holiday. Throughout the 1980s, Halloween street events in gay villages Key West, Florida, Christopher Street in New York, Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood and the Castro in San Francisco evolved from informal parades into Mardi Gras-like events with “drinking and dancing and carrying on in the streets.” In addition to stereotypes about why LGBT people are attracted to fashion, theatricality, and dressing up there are cultural reasons why the events became “the major holiday” for LGBT people. Looking at the holiday’s pagan roots, which were attractive to those who had been shunned by mainstream religions, many LGBT people were able to be outrageous and flamboyant even if they remained closeted. In the days before gay liberation, wearing masks symbolized that most gays were in the closet – if gays were interviewed on TV before 1969, they often wore masks so no one would know their real identity.

Jose Guzman-Colon

Heklina as the Bride of Frankenstein

By the time I moved to San Francisco in 1991, Halloween in the Castro had evolved (or maybe mutated is a better word) into a massive, unwieldy street party that was becoming increasingly difficult to manage. I was then just dipping my heels in the drag world, and that night in 1991 I hobbled around the event in my poorly fitting dress and heels, marveling at the sheer size of the crowd. For sure, there were some amazing looks, but there was also an unwelcome element I noticed immediately. The next day, I heard scary stories of bashings and muggings, and I was spooked. As the years went on, things got worse, but now I’m stating the obvious and preaching to the choir. We all know this. The breaking point for me? It was 2005 and I was by then a full-fledged drag “star,” hosting the Halloween stage in the Castro with Sister Roma in front of hundreds of thousands of people. But what kind of people?

Seared into my brain is the moment that night when I was speaking on the microphone, introducing the next act, and there was a man pressed up against the fence in front of the stage, screaming “fag” at me. I had had it. I was throwing pearls before swine. The ultimate insult? This idiot wasn’t even dressed up! Who doesn’t dress up on Halloween? I just don’t get it. The next year of course was the death knell for Halloween in the Castro, when a shooter wounded nine people at the event. The city of San Francisco had had enough, the mob had won. Do heterosexual people ruin everything? Of course not. Put in super simple terms, there are REALLY cool straight and gay people, and there are REALLY tired ones. The straight people who ruined Halloween in the Castro were of the tired variety, but then, again, we all know this. They won’t let us have nice things, and are also hell-bent on destroying Pink Saturday, but now I digress – why New York City and Los Angeles can have these kind of celebrations and San Francisco lacks the political will to control them is a question best left with the politicians, not yours truly. So, what’s a girl to do? Let the mob win? I just can’t, sorry. Halloween just means too much to me to stay in, and always has since I was a child who never fit in. I was the “weird kid” who loved horror movies, fantasy, scifi, rock and roll, you name it, and it was the one time every year to celebrate all that without fear. Now, I’m the weird drag queen who still loves all of those things, and refuses to grow up. Why should I? Halloween may be an adult holiday in San Francisco, but it’s still for the child in all of us. If you’re reading this you can probably relate, so get out there this Friday night and express yourself. Put a sheet over yourself and say you’re a ghost, draw on whiskers and say you’re a kitty cat; hell, I don’t even care if you do Miley from the VMAs, just GET OUT THERE. Happy Halloween!t Heklina hosts Trannyshack Halloween (A Party) at Beatbox, 314 11th Street, Friday, October 31. Doors open at 9 p.m., show at 11. Online ticket sales have closed, but tickets available at the door.

t <<

Politics>>

October 30-November 5, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

Political Notebook

From page 1

year is helping his partner, Richard Fuentes, campaign for a seat on the board governing the Peralta Community College District. Fuentes, who lost his bid for an Oakland school board seat two years ago, said there “definitely are more LGBT candidates running” this time. “One thing I am really excited to see is we all have open communications and check in how we are doing,” he said. “It is very supportive for the community we are building.” Since Harvey Milk’s historic supervisor victory in 1977, becoming San Francisco’s first out elected official, the city has long been seen as the political power center for the Bay Area’s LGBT community. The city is home to two influential LGBT Democratic clubs and has elected a host of LGBT politicians to both local and state offices over the last 37 years. While other Bay Area cities and counties – San Jose in the South Bay, Hayward in the East Bay, and Vallejo in the North Bay – have had out elected officials, there hasn’t been the same steady succession of LGBT leaders cycling into public office as has happened with San Francisco’s LGBT community. But that pattern has been showing strains with each election cycle. Since the 1999 mayoral race, no out candidate has been able to claim victory to Room 200 at San Francisco City Hall. Lesbians have not held a political office in the city since 2008, and next Tuesday, a straight candidate could win the city’s Assembly seat long held by out leaders. Meanwhile, due to soaring rents and housing prices in the city, a steady flow of LGBT people has decamped for the East Bay. That has been mirrored by the growth of a strong bench of LGBT leaders who

Jane Philomen Cleland

Oakland City Council candidate Abel Guillen

Oakland mayoral candidate Rebecca Kaplan

are increasingly seeking elected office in Alameda County, particularly in Berkeley and Oakland. “I think it is all about representation. We have been here, we have always been here,” said Peralta Community College District Trustee Abel Guillen, who came out as Two Spirit two years ago when he ran for a state Assembly seat and is now running for an Oakland City Council seat. “I think it is great we are coming into our own, if you will, and taking these leadership roles. We lead for the entire community and not just one community.” The candidates on the ballot next week run the gamut from lesbian Oakland At-Large City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, who polls show has a good shot at being elected mayor, and Berkeley City Council candidates Lori Droste, a lesbian, and George Beier, a gay man, to gay Emeryville City Council contender John Bauters and Marguerite Young, a lesbian single mom running for a seat on the East Bay Municipal Utility District board. Several incumbents are seek-

ing re-election, such as bisexual EBMUD Board Member Andy Katz and gay longtime Berkeley City Councilman Kriss Worthington, while queer candidates are in the running for seats on the Berkeley Rent Board, James Chang, and the AC Transit board, Dollene Jones. “They must have put something in the water at the White Horse,” joked Droste, referring to the Oakland gay bar, considered the country’s oldest, near the Berkeley border. “I do know a lot of LGBT folks are moving over to the East Bay because it is a bit more affordable than San Francisco. Certainly, people are attracted to Berkeley for the schools; there is a really large presence of LGBT families here.” The influx of new LGBT residents, many of whom are homeowners, are looking to see people like them in positions of power at city halls across the East Bay, said Sullivan. “Take West Oakland for example: a lot of the homes that have been refurbished are being bought by lesbian and gay owners coming from San Francisco. The same can be said of Emeryville,” noted Sullivan. “The political reality is that we now have a constituency of people inclined to vote because they are now homeownSee page 18 >>

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What you need to know about YOUR

<< Election 2014

8 • Bay Area Reporter • October 30-November 5, 2014

Gay candidates could win state, federal races by Lisa Keen

ext week’s election night is likely to be an important one for the LGBT history books. Voters in Massachusetts are expected to elect the nation’s first-ever out attorney general, and voters in Maine could very well elect the nation’s firstever gay governor. Two candidates for Congress could well become the first gay Republican elected to the House of Representatives and, if they both succeed, they will join what will number as the largest ever contingent of LGBT members of Congress – up from seven to as many as 12, if all newcomers are successful. Add to this mix a large number of LGBT candidates around the country running for various state and local offices. These are 10 races to keep an eye on November 4.

Maine

Congressman Mike Michaud (D) is holding onto a narrow lead over incumbent Republican Paul LePage and progressive independent Eliot Cutler in a race for the governorship. If he’s successful, Michaud, 59, will become the first gay person elected governor. Collectively, the latest polls (see RealClearPolitics) show a virtual tie between Michaud and LePage, with Cutler siphoning off 16 points. But interestingly, the latest poll, from the Bangor Daily News, showed Michaud up by 6 points over LePage. Michaud came out as gay one year ago in an op-ed, saying he didn’t want his campaign for governor to be undermined by “whisper campaigns.” (Former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey came out as gay in 2004 while in office, then promptly resigned.)

Massachusetts

Attorney Maura Healey, 43, a first-time candidate, won a stunning

14GF1018_bar975x7625_6.indd 1

victory in the September primary against a well-entrenched incumbent Democrat – even pro-LGBT Governor Deval Patrick endorsed the incumbent. But Healey trounced former state Senator Warren Tolman by more than 24 points. She is largely expected to do the same with the Republican Party’s nominee John Miller. And, if successful, Healey will become the nation’s first gay person elected as a state attorney general. She is best known in the LGBT community for her work as assistant attorney general on the Massachusetts challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, a companion lawsuit to one led by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders. In another Bay State race, former state Senator Richard Tisei, 52, almost made history two years ago when he narrowly missed becoming the first gay Republican to be elected to Congress. He’s back this year, seeking the same seat, and he’s holding onto a slight lead in some polls. The Democratic incumbent was the surprising loser in the September primary, so Tisei’s competition is Iraq War veteran Seth Moulton, a Democrat. LGBT newspaper publisher Sue O’Connell is backing Tisei; gay former Congressman Barney Frank is backing Moulton. Congress has had gay Republicans before – Steve Gunderson and Jim Kolbe – but they came out after they were in office. If he wins, Tisei would become the first gay Republican elected to Congress. In a third Massachusetts race, a former aide to the late Senator Ted Kennedy (D) is hoping to become the nation’s first gay person elected as a state lieutenant governor. Steve Kerrigan has paid his dues through much work in both the public sector and the Democratic Party. He’s currently president of the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund, a group

Maine gubernatorial candidate Mike Michaud

Gay Republican congressional candidate Carl DeMaio

Massachusetts attorney general candidate Maura Healey

Former American Idol star Clay Aiken is running for Congress in North Carolina.

that serves the families of service members who have died in action. But his fate and his campaign signs are tied closely to that of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley, who is struggling to overcome a highly-funded Republican bid for the so-called corner office.

California

Carl DeMaio, 40, is the second person vying to become the first gay Republican elected to Congress, but his effort has lost traction – first, by failing to win the support of the LGBT community, and, second, by being waylaid by a former campaign aide’s claim that DeMaio sexually harassed him. (Lesbian San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced last week that her office would not be pressing

charges.) DeMaio, a former member of the San Diego City Council, is up against incumbent Democrat Scott Peters who has won endorsement from the Human Rights Campaign. Congressional District 52 is said to be evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. The latest poll, in early October, showed DeMaio with a 3-point lead. In Los Angeles, lesbian former state Senator Sheila Kuehl (D), 73, is in a tight race against Bobby Shriver, a nephew of the late President Kennedy, for the District 3 seat on the powerful Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Despite her long history with the LGBT community, Kuehl is struggling to keep up with Shriver, who has raised twice the cash she has and won the backing of gay media mogul David Geffen. But Kuehl did win the most votes in the June primary and the endorsement of the Los Angeles Times. And if elected to the seat, she would become the first out person to serve on the board.

while little mention is made that Gibson’s campaign depends primarily on finance, insurance, and investment entities. Eldridge is, of course, pro-same-sex marriage; Gibson supports only civil unions, claiming that marriage is a religious institution. He earned a 76 rating from HRC in the last congressional session and a zero in his first term. The Eldridge camp released a poll last week showing that he had closed a 28-point lead by Gibson in September to 10 points as of October 19.

New York

Washington, D.C.

First-term Representative Sean Patrick Maloney (D) is in a tough fight for re-election against the Republican opponent he beat two years ago. Maloney, 48, won his first term by defeating incumbent Republican Nan Hayworth, who’s back for another round. Hayworth earned only a 71 rating from HRC in her one congressional term. In another House race, Sean Eldridge, 28, is making an uphill climb to become a member of the LGBT Congressional Caucus representing New York’s Hudson Valley district. His opponent is two-term Republican Chris Gibson. Eldridge, the spouse of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, has been criticized repeatedly for using the couple’s personal wealth to fund his campaign,

North Carolina

Gay former American Idol star Clay Aiken, a Democrat, is struggling to replace incumbent Republican Representative Renee Ellmers, who represents the 2nd Congressional District in North Carolina, and earned a zero rating from HRC for two terms. Aiken, 35, has done well in fundraising from individuals, while Ellmers has relied on party funding, but polls still show Ellmers with a sizeable lead. Popular gay D.C. Councilman David Catania is mounting a strong campaign to become the capital city’s first gay mayor. Catania, 46, has been haunted somewhat by the fact that he was a Republican in the heavily Democratic city. But he switched to independent 10 years ago after a long-standing dispute with the Republicans over their anti-gay policies. Catania has earned a good reputation in his 17 years on the council, but his effort may be hurt by the independent campaign of another former Republican councilmember, Carol Schwartz. And both Catania and Schwartz are up against the African American Democrat Muriel Bowser, who won the endorsement of the local gay Democratic club.t

10/18/14 8:40 AM

<< LGBT History Month

12 • Bay Area Reporter • October 30-November 5, 2014

Revisiting Dewey’s, a pre-Stonewall LGBT sit-in by Ray Simon

he sit-in at Dewey’s, which occurred at a Philadelphia restaurant in the spring of 1965, is not as well known as the Stonewall riots, but it deserves wider recognition. On the evening of Sunday, April 25, 1965, staff at the diner turned away more than 150 people they believed to be LGBT. According to the August 1965 issue of Drum magazine, which mixed beefcake pictorials with news for gay men, the restaurant’s staff refused “to serve a large number of homosexuals and persons wearing non-conformist clothing.” Eventually, three teenagers – two boys and one girl – refused to give up their seats, in effect beginning a sitin. In the week that followed, LGBT activists used tactics borrowed from the civil rights movement to put pressure on the restaurant’s owners until the ban was lifted. On closer examination, the sit-in at Dewey’s suggests that gay militancy began at least a few years before Stonewall. It also hearkens back to a time when gays, lesbians, and transgender people clearly saw their struggles as intertwined. For Marc Stein, the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Professor of History at San Francisco State University, the sit-in at

Dewey’s not only adds to knowledge of the past, it also prompts people to reevaluate their current understanding of LGBT history. “I think one of the important things to see is that there was a history of these episodes for at least five years before the Stonewall Riots,” Stein, a gay man, said during a telephone interview. “I think for a lot of us,” he continued, “if there’s one thing we want to challenge, it’s the notion that the movement began at Stonewall or the notion that Stonewall was the first time that gays and lesbians, that LGBT people, fought back.”

Might have been forgotten

The story of the sit-in at Dewey’s may very well have been forgotten if it were not for Stein. The mainstream media ignored the incident then and it received scant attention from scholars before Stein began his research. Fortunately, a handful of men and women mentioned the restaurant to the historian while he was interviewing them for his 2000 book, City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and Gay Philadelphia, 1945-72. Dewey’s was a small, familyowned chain of diners that operated in Philadelphia from the 1940s to the 1970s. When the chain’s owner,

Police officers stand outside Dewey’s diner, which was the site of a sit-in by three teenagers.

Farrel Yesner, died in 2003, his obituary stated that “Dewey’s doled out tasty comfort food to customers at restaurants that were mostly oldfashioned lunch counters.” The all-night eateries served customers from all walks of life, but its 13th Street and 17th Street locations drew many LGBT customers, especially after the bars closed. According to Laurie Barron, one of Stein’s interviewees, the restaurant was known as “Fag Dewey’s.” And another, Joan Fleischmann, told him that at Dewey’s “you’d find streetwalkers, you’d find drag queens, you would find everybody.”

Why things came to a head on Sunday, April 25, 1965 is unclear. The June 1965 newsletter of the Janus Society, the local homophile organization, indicates that the diner’s management had grown tired of a group of young LGBT kids just sitting around, being rowdy and ordering little, so it encouraged its employees to shoo them away. As Stein put it, “What I do know is that in the months or years leading up to the Dewey’s sit-in, that Dewey’s had become a late-night hangout, especially for young people and for lots of people we would now call trans.” That night, staff interpreted the directive zealously. Eventually, three teens refused to budge, the police were called and so was Clark Polak, a local LGBT businessman and advocate. At the time, Polak was head of the Janus Society and also published Drum magazine. Exactly what Polak did that night is unknown. The businessman claimed that he was advising the teens of their rights, but Stein acknowledges it’s easy to imagine him getting cantankerous. “We know from other stories that Polak would scream and curse at the police, but he would also argue. He was almost fearless. So I’m sure emotions got intense,” Stein said.

The police promptly arrested Polak and the three teenagers. The savvy businessman quickly organized a picket outside Dewey’s. Roughly 1,500 pieces of literature were distributed to customers and passersby over the next five days. Finally, on Sunday, May 2, just one week after the initial confrontation, a handful of teenagers began a second sit-in. The police were once again summoned, but this time they refused to arrest anyone. Both parties spoke to one another, the situation was defused, and the restaurant resumed serving LGBT customers. This was no small victory. Writing in the Janus Society’s May 1965 newsletter, its editor, Barbara Horowitz (who signed her work Barbara Harris), asserted, “There is no reason to assume that this cannot be called a job well done.” That same editorial also makes it clear that Horowitz, and, by extension, Polak, recognized that what took place was about more than just being able to order a cup of coffee. As Horowitz wrote: “All too often, there is a tendency to be concerned with the rights of homosexuals as long as they somehow appear to be heterosexual, whatever that is. The masculine woman and the feminine man often are looked down upon by the official policy of homophile organizations, but the Janus Society is concerned with the worth of an individual and the manner in which she or he comports himself.” That statement suggests that at least some LGBT activists saw the limitations of pursuing a policy of militant respectability, which was, roughly speaking, the notion that straights would accept LGBT people if only LGBT people could demonstrate that they were just like everybody else.

More work to do

Due to time and lack of attention to the event, some aspects of the sitin are unknown, including the identity of the teenagers, and whether it radicalized LGBT people. Perhaps fighting for the opportunity to sit in a diner and order a meal appears trivial, but it is important to remember that the civil rights movement had already demonstrated that seemingly mundane actions could have profound implications. Studying the sit-in at Dewey’s, Stein discerns significant implications the understanding of LGBT history. Later in the 1960s, a new kind of LGBT activism emerged: the gay liberation movement, which was more radical than the earlier homophile movement. For many, Stonewall was the momentous beginning of that next phase of activism, but Stein believes otherwise. In the sit-in at Dewey’s, he finds evidence of LGBT militancy beginning much earlier than 1969. “The idea of fighting back, the idea of borrowing tactics from the civil rights movement, that stretches back 20 years before Stonewall,” he said. As Stein and his fellow LGBT historians do more research, a fuller picture of LGBT life in the decades after World War II is taking shape. The sit-in at Dewey’s, for example, can no longer be dismissed as an isolated, random event, thanks to the work of transgender scholar Susan Stryker. Her 2005 documentary, Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria, examines a 1966 incident in San Francisco that is strikingly similar to the sit-in at Dewey’s with one difference: at Compton’s, the drag queens literally punched, kicked, and scratched to defend themselves.t Ray Simon is an editor and freelance writer in Philadelphia and a contributor to Philadelphia Gay News. He has written about everything from cryptograms to drag kings and environmental sustainability to video games.

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<< Travel

14 • Bay Area Reporter • October 30-November 5, 2014

ATLANTA!

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Atlanta offers LGBT travelers a rich experience by Heather Cassell

he storm threatened to dampen Atlanta Pride first thing in the morning, but after about an hour of rain the clouds parted and the sun’s rays hit the wet streets, making them sparkle just in time for the parade to kick off with the Dykes on Bikes. Rain or shine the October 12 parade and celebration would have gone on, Buck Cooke, executive director of the Atlanta Pride Committee Inc., which produces the annual Pride celebration, told the Bay Area Reporter. In 2015, Atlanta Pride will celebrate 45 years with its annual parade down Peachtree Street and festival in Piedmont Park in Atlanta’s historic gayborhood Midtown. My girlfriend and I recently flew south to see what Atlanta was all about for Pride, the largest LGBT celebration in the Southeast. Pride is just one event during the city’s gayest month, October, where there is something happening every weekend starting with the Out on Film Festival and ending with Atlanta’s AIDS Walk. The weekend started with a huge sold out fashionable affair, the Atlanta Pride Kickoff Party at the Georgia Aquarium. Parties abound throughout the city, mostly in Midtown at numerous gay bars and nightclubs. In East Atlanta the women celebrate at My Sister’s Room, Atlanta’s only lesbian bar; while other women’s parties, such as Traxx Girls, take place around the city. On Sunday, an estimated 200,000 Pridegoers filled Atlanta’s Midtown ready to celebrate. It was the day after National Coming Out Day and 200 colorful floats passed by en route to the free festival in Piedmont Park. Attendees were treated to a starstudded performance with charttopping Meghan Trainor (“All About that Bass”), along with headliners Colbie Caillat, Symphony Crack Orchestra, and lesbian comedian Lea DeLaria, who plays Big Boo on the hit show Orange is the New Black. DeLaria was also a Pride honorary grand marshal. Much has changed for the million-dollar Pride celebration, said organizers. “Atlanta Pride today is unrecognizable when compared to those early years,” said Glen Paul Freedman, board chair of the Atlanta Pride Committee. He described a period when the Pride parade was small and people were harassed. Organizers had difficulty getting permits to host the celebration, but today representatives from Atlanta’s political and corporate leadership march in the parade, which has an estimated $35 million impact on the city. “I hope that everyone knows how grateful we are to have the privilege of standing on the shoulders of all those brave individuals who came before us. We appreciate the work they did so that we can have the celebration that we do today,” said Freedman, 54, who grew up in Los Angeles and moved to Atlanta from Salt Lake City in 1995. Freedman pointed out that LGBT representation is throughout the city’s history such as at the new Center for Civil and Human Rights and at the Atlanta History Center.

Exploring Hotlanta

Atlanta is a city for history buffs, particularly those interested in African American history from enslavement to Harriett Tubman’s Under-

Geena Dabadghav

Atlanta Pride participants march down Peachtree Street with the rainbow flag during the October 12 parade.

ground Railroad to the Civil War to the civil rights movement. The city is proud of its wealth of historical moments, particularly in the battle for civil rights. In June, Atlanta unveiled its most recent addition with the opening of the Center for Civil and Human Rights. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War (you can check out events here: www.civilwar.org/150thanniversary) and the 75th anniversary of Gone with the Wind, the Pulitzer Prize-winning saga penned by Margaret Mitchell and immortalized in Technicolor and a starstudded cast on the silver screen. (You can check out events and screenings of the film here: www.gwtwshowtimes.com.) Proud of its fictional southern heroine, Scarlett O’Hara, a Gone with the Wind Trail was created to commemorate the anniversary. A majority of the historic sites are located in Atlanta, but the trail leads travelers outside the city, to two museums commemorating the historic novel. Twelve Oaks, Ashley Wilkes’s plantation mansion used in the film adaptation of the novel, is now a bed and breakfast. Fittingly, the Margaret Mitchell House demarks the entrance of the historic gayborhood in Midtown. To see many of the city’s historic sites and attractions, my girlfriend and I used our complementary CityPASS from the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. With the pass we were able to get into the Center for Civil and Human Rights; the Georgia Aquarium; the World of Coca-Cola; the new College Football Hall of Fame, which opened in August; and many other sites at the Centennial Olympic Park, which were in walking distance from the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, where we were guests. The college football museum includes a featured “Chick-fil-A Fan Experience.” Earlier this year the Atlanta-based company’s CEO Dan Cathy backed away from his anti-gay and anti-same-sex marriage comments in 2012. It remains to be seen how sincere Cathy is as the company expands. Atlanta ranked fifth on the Advocate’s annual list of “Gayest Cities in America,” for two years in a row and it is in the top 20 destinations for LGBT travelers overall, according to Community Marketing Inc.’s 18th annual LGBT Travel Survey. The city’s rank jumps to second place for LGBT business travel, according to CMI. Additionally, Atlanta was crowned as the number one city with LGBT-friendly businesses, according to a survey by Vocativ, a New York-based media

company, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in June. Chick-fil-A aside, my girlfriend thoroughly enjoyed learning about college football and the interactive experience from being a sportscaster to being in training on a simulated football field. While she was in sports heaven, I was across from the park at the Center for Civil and Human Rights. I enjoyed taking in the interactive exhibits that tell the story of the civil rights and the global human rights movements. The museum offers activists’ stories about their experiences fighting for their rights in their own countries and what human rights mean to them. Damaris, a lesbian from Nicaragua, tells her story of not being able to live in her home country because her life was threatened simply because she loves women. Other topics highlighted include LGBT rights, HIV/AIDS, and women’s rights. Freedman and other LGBT Atlantans praised the city’s culinary scene, community, offerings from activism and history to nightlife to outdoor activities and its weather for what it has to offer to LGBT travelers. “I can promise that LGBT visitors who come here will be welcomed with open arms and find themselves pleasantly surprised at all there is to see and do,” said Freedman. “Atlanta is a fun place,” agreed Suzanne Marks, a 55-year-old lesbian who moved to the city in 1996 after serving in the Peace Corps in Togo, Africa. Marks is active in the community as well as the returned Peace Corps volunteers. This was the first time the returned LGBT Peace Corps volunteers marched in the Atlanta Pride Parade as a contingent. Marks rattled off a number of festivals that happen throughout the year as well as a vibrant art and music scene, and outdoor activities. However, October is the month where the rainbow colors flow. “October is the gayest month,” said Marks. October is also “one of the prettiest times in Atlanta,” Marks said, and the weather is the best the city offers. “It’s wonderful,” agreed Tracy Wilson, a board member and volunteer coordinator for In the Life Atlanta. “There is always something going on for the boys. There’s always something going on for the girls.” In the Life Atlanta produces Atlanta Black Pride, which attracts more than 10,000 people over Labor Day weekend. “The nightlife is very hot down here, especially for the lesbians,” said Wilson, a 42-year-old lesbian who has lived in Atlanta for more than 15 years. Then there are the eclectic neigh-

Travel>>

borhoods that attract a variety of LGBT residents. “There are so many amazing neighborhoods throughout Atlanta,” said Freedman, pointing out that many neighborhoods and towns are “extremely LGBT friendly.”

Dining around town

Atlanta has a thriving culinary scene that offers up quite a different fare than what my girlfriend and I are used to seeing on menus. It turns out that bison and rabbit are hot on the menus in Atlanta. “For those epicureans among us ... Atlanta will be a special treat,” said Freedman. The food was fantastic and the service impeccable at each restaurant we went to from upscale options at BoccaLupo and White Oak Kitchen and Cocktails for dinner to more casual culinary experiences at the Park Bar, Park Tavern and Villains Wicked Heroes for lunch. We wish we had more time to eat our way through Atlanta as some lo-

October 30-November 5, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

cals I chatted with after we returned home suggested Cowtippers, Einstein’s, Henry’s Restaurant, Hudson Grille, No Mas Cantina, Radial Cafe, and Trace.

Where to stay

In addition to the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, there’s also the Hyatt Atlanta Midtown, which is TAG-approved. Both are excellent places to stay as they are centrally located and offer many amenities. The Hyatt Regency had an entrance directly into the MARTA subway from the hotel making it very easy to get around town as well as to the airport. Hyatt also gets into the celebratory mood for Pride with its webpage dedicated to Pride, www.hyatt. com/hypride and a contingent in the parade. Other options include the artsy Hotel Indigo and the classic Georgian Terrace Hotel, where the stars of Gone with the Wind stayed when the movie premiered in Atlanta in 1939. Both hotels are right along the parade route and do it up for Pride

Geena Dabadghav

Organizers of Atlanta Gay Black Pride, left to right, Tracy Wilson, board member and volunteer coordinator; Reggie Batiste, vice president; a unnamed volunteer; and Rickie Smith, president of In the Life Atlanta.

offering a comfortable place for guests to view the celebration and enjoy food and beverages.

Outside of Atlanta

Martin “Sid” Edeline, who goes by Nurse Holly when he’s in his drag persona performing with The Armorettes, said that Atlanta has much to offer LGBT travelers, but he added that Atlanta is also a jumping off point for visitors to experience Georgia. The Armorettes is a drag organization celebrating its 35th anniversary raising money for HIV/AIDS, said Edeline, a 50-year-old gay man who has performed with the group since 1990 and serves as the organization’s treasurer. Beyond Atlanta is a variety of day and overnight trips to wine country or the mountains. My girlfriend and I couldn’t resist taking the journey to the Whistle Stop Cafe in Juliette, about a 45-minute drive from the city. We advise getting there at 11 a.m. when it opens because it fills up fast with tourists creating a line through the town. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe left its mark on this postage stamp-sized town that is about a city block long, but filled with life as people from all over the world venture out to try the fried green tomatoes at the cafe made famous by author Fannie Flagg. We weren’t disappointed. The fried green tomatoes were worth the trip, but so were the fried okra, fried peppers, and other down home southern cooking that – you guessed it – is fried or barbecued. To work off the fried goodness, I suggest stopping off at High Falls or at Indian Springs State Park, the oldest state park in the U.S., on your way back to Atlanta to take a walk on the trails. Another interesting site near Juliette is the Jarrell Plantation to get a taste of the South long gone to history.t

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<< Obituaries

16 • Bay Area Reporter • October 30-November 5, 2014

First NPR Chairman Bernard Mayes dies by Cynthia Laird

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nthony Bernard Duncan Mayes, a gay man who was the first chairman of National Public Radio and the founder of San Francisco Suicide Prevention, died October 23 at UCSF Parnassus Hospital. He was 85. Mr. Mayes, who was known as Bernard, died after a brief illness, said his longtime friend and former housemate, Matthew Chayt. He had also been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and his search for an independent living facility was featured in the Bay Area Reporter in April. Chayt recalled that he was 18 and a college freshman when he met Mr. Mayes, who was an inspiration and comfort to him when he was reeling from family turmoil. “Years later, Bernard inadvertently introduced me to my future husband, then became a dear friend and roommate,” Chayt said in an email. “He was dedicated to the cause of justice to the end, and on the last evening we spent together before his final illness, we discussed the candidates and initiatives on the ballot to help each other decide how to vote.” One of Mr. Mayes’s most important roles in life was that of a broadcast journalist and entertainer. Beginning in 1958 he worked as a journalist for the BBC and other networks, interviewing film stars, astronauts, and other public figures. While attempting to report on the multi-racial Koinonia Farm community in Sumter County, Georgia, Mr. Mayes was confronted by the Ku Klux Klan. In 1968 Mr. Mayes helped organize the public broadcasting system in the United States, becoming first the founder of KQED-FM and executive vice president of KQED TV in San Francisco, then a co-founder and first working chairman of National Public Radio. Today, NPR attracts over 25 million listeners per week. Mr. Mayes then became a consultant for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Washington, D.C., advising universities and communities across the country. Meanwhile, he continued his work as a journalist, covering such events as the aftermath of the Harvey Milk and George Moscone assassinations in 1978. Mr. Mayes was also prolific in the arena of radio drama, contributing scripts and performances to projects including “Homer’s Odyssey,” “The Agamemnon of Aeschylus,” and “Plato’s Phaedo,” each adapted from the original Greek; and “The Lord of the Rings,” a 1979 radio series that he wrote and performed in as Gandalf. Mr. Mayes also received financial support from the National Endowment for the Arts for a dramatization of the life of Thomas Jefferson. He also recorded several books for Blackstone Audio Books and was often heard in “The Black Mass,” Eric Bauersfeld’s series of dramatic adaptations for Berkeley’s FM station KPFA.

Helping others

CA BRE# 01346949

In 1962, Mr. Mayes founded San Francisco Suicide Prevention. Indeed, Chayt said, Mr. Mayes was the founding force behind the suicide prevention movement in America, launching in San Francisco the first of what would eventually become a network of over 500 community crisis centers. Founding San Francisco Suicide Prevention would retain pride of place for Mr. Mayes among his many achievements, Chayt said. In a city that was known for the highest suicide rate in the western world, he started a simple volun-

teer hotline using the College of Arts and Scicode name “Bruce” and ences in 1991, and then distributed matchbooks chair of the Commuwith the phone number nications Department, in Tenderloin bars. He finally founding the had a newsman’s flair for Media Studies Program. publicity and was able to He was awarded the Sulmaintain constant vislivan/Harrison Award for ibility of the fledgling mentoring and received organization and its efa commendation by the Jane Philomen Cleland forts to reach people who Anthony Bernard University Seven Society. found themselves want- Duncan Mayes Continuing his LGBTQ ing to end their lives. He activism, Mr. Mayes also trained the organization’s co-founded the Lesbian, first volunteers and went Gay, Bisexual, Transsexuwith them to secure the first office al Faculty, Staff and Graduate Stuin the basement of a Tenderloin dent Association at the University of apartment building – whose manVirginia, known as UVA Pride. ager initially believed them to be an Chayt’s husband, Will Scott, reescort service. called meeting Mr. Mayes in 1998 Outgoing gay state Assemblyman while waiting tables at a gay-owned Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), restaurant in Charlottesville during who knew Mr. Mayes for many college. years, said he would be missed. “He asked me what my plans “I knew Bernie for nearly half a were, and I told him I was preparing to study abroad that fall in India, century,” Ammiano said in a stateTibet, and Nepal,” Scott said in an ment. “He was the kindest, wittiest, email. “He immediately said, ‘I must most loving man, who flourished introduce you to the Dalai Lama’s despite the oppression and hoambassador to the United States.’ mophobia. He was, in my mind, a Sure enough, we met the following worker-priest. His commitment to week for lunch with the prominent the issue of suicide prevention was UVA Tibetan scholar, Jeffrey Hopgroundbreaking.” kins. Over the years Bernard would Eve Meyer, executive director introduce me to many amazing of San Francisco Suicide Prevenpeople, including my future hustion, told the B.A.R. that Mr. Mayes band, and he would challenge me would regularly drop by the office often with philosophical and theoto talk with the staff and meet the logical questions.” volunteers. When Chayt and Scott moved to “He was not just our founder, he San Francisco, Mr. Mayes came with was our guiding light,” Meyer said. them. Meyer said that Mr. Mayes wantOn Mr. Mayes’s retirement from ed the volunteers and staff to keep UVA in 1999, the Serpentine Society, all possibilities in mind, and not just the University of Virginia’s LGBTQ rest on what had been done. alumni association, began annually “He was amazing that way,” giving the Bernard Mayes Award to Meyer said. an alumna or alumnus who conBecause he had Parkinson’s and tributes positively to LGBTQ causes its attendant mobility issues, Meyer both within the university commusaid that she would often call ahead nity and beyond. to brief people if she and Mr. Mayes In later years, ever curious and were meeting someone. engaged, Mr. Mayes continued his “I’d say he walks slowly but talks research on the role of faith in soquickly,” Meyer said. ciety. He also found a new role as Early life a voice for LGBTQ seniors, joinMr. Mayes was born in London ing organizations and giving press on October 10, 1929, and would interviews about the challenges always remember enduring the horLGBTQ elders face. In June 2014, ror of the London Blitz as a 10-yearthe California Legislative LGBT old boy, according to Chayt. After Caucus honored him at the state completing a graduate degree in Capitol in Sacramento. classical civilizations at Cambridge Mr. Mayes’s autobiography, EsUniversity in 1954, Mr. Mayes caping God’s Closet: The Revelaworked first as a high school teacher tions of a Queer Priest, received the of Latin, Greek, and history. He then Lambda Literary Award for religion completed training at the influential and spirituality. In the book, Mr. College of the Resurrection in MirMayes revealed why he ultimately field, and became ordained as an renounced the priesthood and Anglican priest. religion, and described the interMr. Mayes emigrated to the dependence, interaction and endUnited States in 1958 and became less exchange within the universe worker-priest and director of a stuas the “Soup.” For Mr. Mayes, the dent house attached to Judson Meinterrelationship of all things nemorial Church in Greenwich Village cessitated a particular ethic that he and New York University. whimsically dubbed “Soupism.” For In 1960, Mr. Mayes moved to San Mr. Mayes, Soupism was derived Francisco, and held a small parish in from the belief that love for others, the Diocese of California. egalitarian government, universal Having already come out years education and respect for the planet before, Mr. Mayes also organized a and all that live upon it are critical sexuality study center for the Episfor the continued health, well-being copal Diocese of California that was and survival of the human species. dubbed the Parsonage. The ParMr. Mayes is survived by his many sonage was awarded the Episcopal close friends all over the world, who Jubilee citation and later evolved loved him dearly. He is also survived into the present-day Oasis organizaby his former colleagues, and the tion. Thus, through the tumultuous unknown thousands of people who 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in San Franare alive today because of his work. cisco, Mr. Mayes was an important Mr. Mayes’s close friends invite voice for compassion and crossthose seeking to honor him to give cultural understanding. a contribution in his memory to Invited in 1984 to join the EngSan Francisco Suicide Prevention, lish faculty of the University of KQED, or the Serpentine Society. Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, Celebrations of Mr. Mayes’s life Bernard took what would prove to will be planned in California and be a 20-year break from California. Virginia later; interested people are Winning the respect of faculty and invited to contact Matthew Chayt students alike, Mr. Mayes was apat matthew.chayt@gmail.com for pointed assistant dean in UVA’s information.t

Obituaries>>

October 30-November 5, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 17

Writer John Drummond, known as Pansy, dies by Cynthia Laird

ohn Ashley Drummond, known widely as Pansy Bradshaw, a gay man who co-wrote an early gay travel guide of San Francisco, died Thursday, October 23 in Missoula, Montana. He was 60. Friends said that Mr. Drummond suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, and that he died peacefully, with dignity, surrounded by those who cherished him. Mr. Drummond moved to San Francisco in the late 1980s. During the AIDS epidemic he was able to minister to countless numbers of his dying friends. He was a preschool teacher at Pacific Primary. He also worked at A Different Light Bookstore in the early 1990s, where he used his broad literary knowledge as a bookseller. It was there that he met his writing partner, John Orcutt, also known as Betty, and together they researched and documented their shenanigans, resulting in the book Betty & Pansy’s Severe Queer Review of San Francisco. They went underground and

self-published the first 500 copies. The book went on to be picked up by a publisher and celebrated seven subsequent printings. “It was a very raunchy and irreverent travel guide,” Orcutt said in an email. Orcutt said the pair decided to write the guide because “queer tourists always came into the bookstore asking for an SF travel guide and left dejected when they found out there wasn’t one.” “Inspired by Sam D’Alessandro’s book, The Zombie Pit, we decided to visit every gay dive in San Francisco (which at the time had over 70 gay bars),” Orcutt said. Author, teacher, artist, preacher, nanny, activist, brother, Quaker friend, and queer have been just a few of the words used to describe Mr. Drummond, who meant so much to so many, friends said. For the past 19 years he was an active participant in Dillon, Montana’s religious, academic, art and civic life. Cathy Weber, one of his longtime friends, said that Mr. Drummond worked as a nanny when her

Courtesy John Orcutt

John Ashley Drummond, a.k.a. Pansy, in the early 1990s.

son was a baby. “Pansy stayed on as our big, queer, loving, perfect nanny for 18 years and just moved to Missoula a few weeks ago,” Weber wrote in a Facebook post about his passing. Mr. Drummond shared his love of all things with those who knew him. The children he helped raised were gifted with his love of books, art, music, nature, and life. These many children lovingly called him Pau. He encouraged their uniqueness, nurtured them as they grew and taught

Wellness workshop for LGBTs takes place Thursday compiled by Cynthia Laird

presentation entitled, “Achieving Wellness in the LGBT Community: Mind, Body, and Spirit” takes place Thursday, October 30 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street. The free event will feature a keynote speech by Darlene Nipper, deputy executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force (formerly the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force). Following Nipper’s re-

PrEP

From page 1

the battle against HIV/AIDS.” The Food and Drug Administration approved Gilead Sciences’ Truvada (tenofovir plus emtricitabine) for PrEP in July 2012. This past May the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that people at substantial risk should consider PrEP to prevent HIV infection, and in July the World Health Organization recommended PrEP as an option for at-risk gay men. The board vote was 10-1, with Supervisor Katy Tang voting no. In an email, Tang said that while she is supportive of HIV prevention and outreach efforts she generally does not support supplemental appropriations, which take place outside of the normal budget process. The Department of Public Health will now flesh out the details of the navigator plan and funding will go through a request

marks, there will be a panel discussion that will include Dr. Annelle B. Primm, deputy medical director of the American Psychiatric Association; Dr. Dan Karasic, health science clinical professor at UCSF; Dr. Robert Cabaj, medical director at San Mateo Behavioral Health and Recovery Services; Dr. Jei Africa, health equity initiatives director at San Mateo Behavioral Health and Recovery Services; Jamison Green, Ph.D., president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health; and Lori Thoemmes, LMFT, director

Halloween party Friday

for proposals or RFP process. “Today, we’ve taken a bold first step in expanding access to PrEP in San Francisco,” Campos said in response to the vote. “By embracing this measure and committing to do more, San Francisco has heightened the dialogue on PrEP – working to reduce the stigma and promoting a path to no new infections.” Also on Tuesday, gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener called for a hearing on the status of San Francisco’s “Getting to Zero” effort, a collaboration among public health agencies, nonprofit healthcare providers, and advocates. “San Francisco has made huge strides reducing new HIV infections, quickly connecting people to treatment, suppressing viral loads, and reducing HIV-related deaths,” Wiener said. “Now is the time to put the final nail in HIV’s coffin in San Francisco by ending this epidemic once and for all.” The Getting to Zero Consortium aims to reduce new HIV infections

and HIV-related deaths by 90 percent by 2020, using a three-prong strategy that includes expanded access to PrEP, rapid access to antiretroviral therapy, and retention of HIV-positive people in care. Tang said that she is supportive of Getting to Zero. “I look forward to having a more comprehensive dialogue with DPH to put together a more comprehensive funding plan during the regular budget process to ensure that San Francisco remains a leader in HIV prevention, outreach, treatment, and education efforts,” Tang said, referring to the health department. Campos explained that after conversations with DPH, community members, and budget and legislative analysts, he reduced his initial request of $801,600 from the city’s general fund reserve by half a million dollars. Analyst Harvey Rose said this would allow the city to hire six or eight PrEP navigators, rather than the 12 previously envisioned.t

of the UCSF Alliance Health Project. The event is organized by the American Psychiatric Association Division of Diversity and Health Equity as part of its On Tour series. For registration or more information, email spatel@psych.org or call (703) 907-8579. Longtime city resident Jon Sugar is holding a Halloween party Friday, October 31 at 8 p.m. at Tikka Masala, 1668 Haight Street. Admission is free. The event is safe fun for all ages, Sugar said. Sugar is holding the party as an alternative now that there is no longer a Halloween event in the Castro.t

A surprise $5 million gift Jane Philomen Cleland

embers of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus sang in appreciation of Jerome Geller and Kenneth Sullivan, whose photos are next to the stage, a gay couple together for 53 years who left $5

million to seven LGBT-oriented organizations when they died in 2012. According to Joe Leive, none of the organizations knew that these bequests were forthcoming. In addition to the chorus, other groups who

received funds were: AIDS Emergency Fund, Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network, Point Foundation, Positive Resource Center, Theatre Rhinoceros, and New Conservatory Theatre.

them to “use their words” in order to be heard. Friends said that Mr. Drummond had an unwavering faith at all times, even during times when many others would lose their faith. He was kind and gentle and forgiving. But most of all he was true to himself. Mr. Drummond was born September 6, 1954 in Miami, Florida to mother, Elie, and father, John. Raised as a Catholic, he attended 12 years of parochial schools. He was active in chorus at Miami Springs High School where he graduated in 1972. While studying at Miami Dade College he first encountered the Jewish community and began his lifelong love of Judaism, which resulted in his conversion. Many communities were home to him, friends said. While in Miami Springs he worked with Jan Ansbaugh at the Art Colony and became a master picture framer. When living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York, he was employed by a mortuary where he learned Jewish funeral practices. While studying in a Catholic monastery he became an

accomplished beekeeper. At the age of 23, he came out to an abbot at the monastery and the decision was made for him to leave the monastic life. Mr. Drummond moved to Dillon, Montana in 1996 where he was a nanny for several families. He worked, in addition to being a nanny, at The Bookstore, Bert’s CDs, and was the hospice chaplain. He also lectured in university classes on poetry, diversity, comparative religion, and queer culture. He continued to write and was published often. He was particularly proud of a biographical short story that appeared in the anthology Queer and Catholic. Mr. Drummond is survived by his sister, Deborah De Rosa, brother-in-law Castro Limardo, brother, Curtis Drummond, sister Darlene Bithorn, nieces Christina Saavedra, Jasmine Marie, and Jose Angel. He is also survived by Cathy Weber, Rio Crichfield-Weber, Rob Thomas, Anneliese Ripley, Abbey and Haley Thomas. He also leaves behind his large extended family in Dillon and all the other communities where he was loved. t

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

18 • Bay Area Reporter • October 30-November 5, 2014

Political Notebook

From page 7

ers and want to protect their investment. And they are happy to do so by supporting an out LGBT candidate.” In addition to a more politically involved LGBT constituency, out candidates are also getting an assist from the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club, whose influence continues to grow as candidates seeking the LGBT vote covet its endorsement. This year the club held three endorsement

SF housing crisis

From page 4

displaced from their homes and young queer folks fleeing here for refuge can’t afford to live here,” Avicolli Mecca said, referring to the $6 million Castro sidewalk widening project.

Workplace advocates

From page 4

all 50 states, you have an economic burden,” said Engardio. “It’s time to finish the job on LGBT equality, because it’s a huge cost to business,” he added. Before Rolling Stone declared that the U.S. has reached the “marriage equality tipping point” last week, Time magazine devoted its May 29 issue to what it called “the transgender tipping point.” Their coverage included an interview with Laverne Cox, the first out transgender Emmy nominee. Janet Mock, another pioneer for transgender visibility in the entertainment industry, gave a keynote speech at last year’s Out and Equal summit. She laid out key elements to transgender inclusivity in the workplace: inclusion of gender identity

Lesbian bar

From page 1

fabric of its queerness,” Boyd said. Wild Side West is a Cortland Avenue neighborhood Lesbianowned bar with its own unique history. But it doesn’t serve the same community as the Lex. As one frequent Lex patron, Christina Green, explained it, “One of the main differences is the age difference between the two. Without the Lex, the younger queer scene will have nowhere to hang out.” Other bars, like El Rio and the neighboring Virgil’s Sea Room, where Thirkield is a part owner, are reliably queer-friendly. But the Lex is the last unambiguously lesbian bar. Boyd, who wrote the book on the history of queer bars in San Francisco (literally – it’s called WideOpen Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965) says she is often asked how the Lex became the last of its kind. “The big question for the last 15 years, whenever I do a talk anywhere, is why is there only one lesbian bar in San Francisco?” Boyd said. “Now with the closing of the Lex, the question gets a little bit more pointed,” she said. “Well, what now? There’s not even one designated seven-day-a-week space.” For many, that question is hard to bear. “I’m just totally heartbroken,” said queer porn icon Courtney Trouble. “I’ve been going to the Lex for 10 years. Me and my partner had our first kiss on their sidewalk. My first DJ gig was there. I shot my first porn film on their pool table. I don’t know what else is even left of San Francisco.” The Lex is the land of a thousand queer girl 21st birthday celebrations. It’s committed to absent cover charges and abundant cheap drink specials, including the notorious penny shot. It hosted some of the best Folsom Street Fair parties, some of the best Halloween parties, and the only Pride waffle brunch. It has a strict pro-puppy policy. The spirit of the Lex has reached far beyond its doors. Sarah Marloff, a former Lex regular who now

meetings – one earlier this summer to dole out early support to a number of out candidates and two this fall for races in both Alameda and west Contra Costa County. “I feel them being a stronger group has definitely changed the landscape for LGBT candidates to feel more supported and to feel like they have a group of folks who can walk streets for them, do phone banking and write a check for the campaign,” said Fuentes. Young, who was born and raised

in the East Bay and briefly lived in San Francisco, said the two areas differ in terms of their political scenes. While San Francisco’s LGBT community remains concentrated in the city’s eastern neighborhoods, the East Bay LGBT community is more diffuse, she noted. “I think the East Bay is kind of figuring out what works for the East Bay. I don’t think that is the same as in San Francisco,” she said. “Oakland and other Bay Area communities, in general, are more diverse.”

And challenges remain for finding and mobilizing LGBT support, added Young. “I still think, in terms of boots on the ground, more money, and more clout, there is still more that can be done,” she said. Having a large number of LGBT candidates on the ballot at once, said Young, “definitely is helpful. What it shows is that in the East Bay being LGBT and being a candidate for election is going mainstream, and that is great.”t

He mentioned a two-bedroom apartment in the Castro that was listed for $4,200 a month. He also called upon LGBT organizations and more individuals to get involved in the fight against evictions as the audience applauded. Bill Hirsh, executive director of

the AIDS Legal Referral Panel, said that his office was assisting people facing eviction in seven counties around the Bay Area. ALRP’s 700 volunteer attorneys were taking cases, Hirsh stated, pointing out that without legal assistance, tenants would likely lose.

Bevan Dufty, a gay man who’s director of the city’s Housing, Opportunity, Partnerships, and Engagement program, said that people need to be educated on homelessness. “We are not wealthy,” he said. “Many are struggling.”t

in non-discrimination and non-harassment policies; trans-inclusive health care coverage; access to the restroom; LGBT affinity groups that discuss both sexual orientation and gender identity; and consultants “attuned to the unique challenges of the transition process, from name and medical coverage changes to confidentiality and record-keeping.” That consultant, Mock reminded the audience, can be hired through Out and Equal. The organization also provides diversity training and educational resources to companies. Out and Equal works mainly inside companies and partners extensively with multi-national corporations, sometimes leading to controversy. In 2010, for example, Target donated large sums to funds that benefited anti-gay politicians, including for-

mer Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who notoriously tried to reinstate anti-sodomy laws in that state. But Out and Equal continued to partner with Target, and the company is a primary sponsor of the summit. Berry said that when managing relationships with companies like these, she likes to “focus on the positive, and reward people for doing the right thing.” “There are times when I don’t agree with many of the policies the company has made. But I really focus on what they’re doing for LGBT employees,” Berry said. “I feel it’s a litmus test to see that they are committed to broader equality issues.” Out and Equal is “a bipartisan organization,” Berry said, but does advocate for some government policies, including “a totally inclusive ENDA that doesn’t have loopholes

or religious exemptions.” ENDA, or the Employee NonDiscrimination Act, would protect LGBT employees from discrimination and baseless termination. But Congress can’t seem to pass this basic protection – the bill has been repeatedly stalled since it was first introduced in 1994. The Senate passed an inclusive ENDA last year, but the House likely won’t vote on it before this Congress ends in January. But the fight for ENDA and other LGBT workplace protections is far from over. In fact, the work may be just beginning to heat up. Engardio’s prediction: “Now that marriage looks like it’s on its way toward being resolved, the new push will be toward workplace equality.”t

throws queer parties in Austin and Washington, D.C., said she takes inspiration from Lex parties. “I think the Lex definitely left a mark. Their events always being free, the dive bar feel. I try to give my parties a similar feel,” Marloff said. “The Lex always seemed like where the magic started.” For many, that magic had to do with meeting some of the most important people in their lives at the Lex. “Some of my favorite memories at the Lex are based around meeting my present day best friends,” said Estella Barboza, bassist and guitarist for local punk band No Bone. “There have been nights at the Lex where a song like Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ will come on and the entire bar would sing along, which is exactly as cheesy as it sounds.” No Bone’s vocalist Adrienne Elias said she spent a lot of time at the Lex in her early 20s. “My bandmate and I would go and drink whiskey and write lyrics on napkins,” Elias said. (The lyrics were for a previous band, Lazy Tops). “It’s a shame that this safe space has to close down. It is not the first and will not be the last. I only wish it felt as if we could rally together and save the Lex. Keep this li’l haven of ladies, for the ladies and serving the ladies,” Barboza said. This haven has been critical for Bonilla. “In Florida, I got constantly harassed being in public for looking different. I was tired of constantly having to defend myself for just being me,” said Bonilla, who hails from Jacksonville. Moving across the country didn’t shield Bonilla from mistreatment. “I identify as genderqueer, so in a way it’s really hard for me. Even in San Francisco I still get harassed by people,” Bonilla, who prefers genderneutral pronouns, said. But it helps, they said, “just to know that I can go to this bar and not have random guys asking me what my gender is or yelling at me because I look like a dude. I go in there and I don’t have to worry about that, zero percent, at all.” Partly, Bonilla said, the Lex maintains this rare sense of security be-

cause “we watch each other’s backs.” Bonilla took a job as a door person at the Lex last month, and has dealt consistently with people who try to harass patrons. “Every time that I’ve worked there, there’s been at least one random guy that was asked to leave. For either calling women bitches, or talking about their parts of their body, or touching them inappropriately,” Bonilla said. Bonilla isn’t sure where they’ll go to relax, unwind, and meet up with friends without the comfort of the Lex, where they know that staff and other customers will protect each other from potential hostility. “I go there and I feel completely comfortable,” Bonilla said. “And I don’t feel that way going to other bars. I go into a random bar in the Mission, and I’m getting stared at.”

ly health care, faced closure, the Lex helped out with a fundraiser. When the late, great Lusty Lady needed funds, they held a benefit at the Lex. But now that community is fractured. In Thirkield’s announcement, she wrote that much of her client base has moved to Oakland. In addition, Thirkield wrote, in recent years her rent had been raised to market rate. She declined to be interviewed for this story. Thirkield has already found a buyer, and sources close to the bar say that the paperwork between Thirkield and the buyer, who has not been identified, is “being finalized.” But Thirkield will retain the name of the Lexington, and host parties and events under that name in other bars and clubs that have managed to hold on. “The Lex closing is yet another round of something that’s been going on for 10 years. I lived in the Mission since 1988. There was a pretty vibrant dyke community there. That community has really been priced out,” said Zeph Fish, whose art currently hangs in the Lex. “It’s another symptom of what we all know is going on. The demographics are really shifting geographically. I think the Lex is the last really public lesbian institution in the neighborhood.” Fish’s series, “Signs of the Times,” which is on display on the Lex’s south-facing wall, is a favorite of Bonilla’s. It reached new levels of poignancy, Bonilla said, when they learned the bar was closing. As Bonilla described the spray paint prints: “There are these suitcases, and one suitcase is an actual house. Like they’re picking up a suitcase and walking away with everything they have in their house. And that really connected to me a lot. Because that’s what’s happening in this neighborhood. To so many of us.” For now, the art is still up. The Lex is open, and will be until after New Year’s. The Lex is still supporting a community to a degree so unique, it’s taught in schools. The Lex has claimed its place in history. And even when it closes – when the Lex is just a memory of a bar – it will still be so much more than that.t

Bridging the trans divide

Boyd said that this safe space for gender variance is part of the Lex’s unique place in queer and feminist history. “A lot of the early lesbian, trans community formation was in opposition. There was this turf war about it,” Boyd said. “The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival is emblematic of that political contest over territory, different queer territory. But the Lex was a place where that didn’t happen ... a lot of queer women’s spaces were inhospitable to the trans community. The Lex bridged that somehow, in a seamless way.” Trouble attributes this success in large part to Thirkield. “Lila has always warmly welcomed all kinds of queers into that space to explore, create, experiment, radicalize our personal experiences,” Trouble said. “What it means now is SF has no central space for queer- and feminist-specific social organizing, that’s free and always open to us.” Besides providing a set for her first film, the Lex has supported Trouble in other ways, including hosting a fundraiser for her website queerporn.tv. Benefits and fundraisers are common at the Lex. When Lyon-Martin Health Services, a longtime provider of queer friend-

For more information on the summit, visit www.outandequal.org.

Legal Notices>> NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINSTER ESTATE OF WILLIAM S. ROBINSON IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-14-298188

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of WILLIAM S. ROBINSON. A Petition for Probate has been filed by JEFF ALTMAN in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that JEFF ALTMAN be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: Nov 19, 2014, 9:00 am, Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: PATRICIA A. MAYER, #133171, LAW OFFICES OF JULIA P. WALD, 1108 FIFTH AVE #202, SAN RAFAEL, CA 94901; Ph. (415) 482-7555.

OCT 30, NOV 06, 13, 2014 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 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT NOTICE TO PROPOSERS GENERAL INFORMATION

The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT (“District”), 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, is advertising for proposals to Conduct A Disparity Study in Support of the District’s DBE Program, Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 6M5078, on or about October 24, 2014, with proposals due by 2:00 PM local time, Tuesday, November 25, 2014. DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED The District is soliciting the services of a consultant to Conduct A Disparity Study in Support of the District’s DBE Program, all as specified in the RFP. A Pre-Proposal Meeting will be held on Thursday, November 6, 2014. The Pre-Proposal Meeting will convene at 10:00 AM in the BART Board Room, located at the Kaiser Center Mall, 344 – 20th Street, Third Floor, Oakland, California 94612. At the Pre-Proposal Meeting the District’s Non-Discrimination Program for Subcontracting and Small Business Program will be explained. All questions regarding MBE/WBE participation should be directed to Mr. Maceo Wiggins, Principal Analyst, Office of Civil Rights at (510) 464-7194 – FAX (510) 874-7470. Prospective Proposers are requested to make every effort to attend this only scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting, and to confirm their attendance by contacting the District’s Principal Contract Specialist, telephone (510) 464-6390, prior to the date of the Pre-Proposal Meeting. Networking Session: Immediately following the Pre-Proposal Meeting, the District’s Office of Civil Rights will be conducting a Networking Session for subconsultants to meet the prime consultants for MBE/WBE participation opportunities. WHERE TO OBTAIN OR SEE RFP DOCUMENTS (Available on or after October 24, 2014) Copies of the RFP may be obtained: • By written request to the District’s Principal Contract Specialist, 300 Lakeside Drive, 17th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612. Reference RFP No. 6M5078 and title and send requests to Fax No. (510) 464-7650. • By arranging pickup at the above address. Call the District’s Principal Contract Specialist, (510) 464-6390 prior to pickup of the RFP. • By E-mail request to the District’s Principal Contract Specialist, Ms. Irene G. Gray, igray@bart.gov. • By attending the Pre-Proposal Meeting and obtaining the RFP at the meeting. Dated at Oakland, California this 23rd day of October, 2014 ./s/ Patricia K. Williams Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 10/30/14 CNS-2681969# BAY AREA REPORTER

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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-14-550643

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-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 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550676

In the matter of the application of: JEONG JA CHO, C/O KATHERINE M. LEWIS #247258, VAN DER HOUT, BRIGAGLIANO & NIGHTINGALE LLP, 180 SUTTER ST #500, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JEONG JA CHO, is requesting that the name JEONG JA CHO, be changed to JEONG TOBIN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514 on the 30th of December 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 30, NOV 06, 13, 20, 2014 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 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 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT RFP NO. 6M4306 EXTENSION OF TIME FOR RECEIPT OF PROPOSALS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the General Manager of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District has extended the time for receipt of Proposals until the hour of 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, November 4, 2014, at the District’s Offices, 23rd Floor Receptionist, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California 94612 (by Hand Delivery), or to the District Secretary’s Office, P.O. Box 12688, Oakland, CA 94604-2688 (by U.S. Mail), to Provide Employee Assistance Program Services, as more fully described in the RFP Documents. Dated at Oakland, California, this 13th day of October, 2014. /s/ Oji U. Kanu for Richard J. Wieczorek, Department Manager, Procurement San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 10/23/14 CNS-2678041# BAY AREA REPORTER

October 30-November 5, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

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

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OCT 30, NOV 06, 13, 20, 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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OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036067300

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KUMON OF BERNAL HEIGHTS, 3403 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed DCCT SOLUTIONS, LLC (CA). 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 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036067800

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-036082800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUPER GARAGE SALE, 1343 POLK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VENA SHOTIVEYARATANA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/08/14.

OCT 16, 23, 30, NOV 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036087500

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

OCT 16, 23, 30, NOV 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036080000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DE ROSA BROS. PARKING, 916 CHESTNUT, ALAMEDA, CA 94501. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JASON PAICH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/07/14.

OCT 23, 30, NOV 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036093800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PACIFIC BAY PIPING SYSTEMS, 161 UNIVERSITY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WEN MIN JIANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/17/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/17/14.

OCT 23, 30, NOV 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036095700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WALLS BY JOSEPH, 423 LAGUNA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSEPH A. FERRUCCIO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/02/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/17/14.

OCT 23, 30, NOV 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036093700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE LITTLE JUNGLE, 113 PRECITA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NELLY VARGAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/20/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/17/14.

OCT 23, 30 NOV 06, 13, 2014

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San Francisco Nonprofit Displacement Mitigation Program The Northern California Community Loan Fund, Community Arts Stabilization Trust and Urban Solutions announce the availability of technical and financial assistance to address displacement impacting San Francisco nonprofits providing arts, cultural, and social services. Applications must be received by Friday, November 14, 2014. For information and the online application, please visit: www.ncclf.org/npdmitigation

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Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036090900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NECTAR VENTURES, 546 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed ELIZABETH WARBURTON & WILLIAM STARK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/21//14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/15/14.

OCT 23, 30, NOV 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036092200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HITITUP, 28 MINERVA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FAST N FRESH LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/16/14.

OCT 23, 30, NOV 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036108300

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PURPLE MAROON, 1167 CAYUGA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSEPHINE TCHANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/24/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/27/14.

OCT 30, NOV 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036075600

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

OCT 30, NOV 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036115700

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-036107000

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

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

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AL’S PLACE, 1499 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TATR LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/22/14.

OCT 30, NOV 06, 13, 20, 2014

See Our Progress in the Bay Area.

Michael Kaufmann, Castro Neighborhood Resident

Replaced approximately 15 miles of gas pipeline

Invested

more than $1 billion into electrical improvements

cOnnected more than 62,000 rooftop solar installations

Together, Building a Better California pge.com/SeeOurProgress

Thrills & chills

Puccini's potboiler

Out &About

Panther tracks

O&A

The

Vol. 44 • No. 44 • October 30-November 5, 2014

www.ebar.com/arts

Leslie Uggams reinvents herself by Richard Dodds

eslie Uggams doesn’t spend much time counting backwards, except maybe when other performers boast about their 50 or so years in show business. “I start adding up my own years, and I go, ‘Please, that’s nothing.’ But that’s usually the only time I really think about it,” she said. “I believe in reinventing yourself, moving on, trying different things.” See page 30 >>

Leslie Uggams, who has been performing professionally for more than six decades, will offer Classic Uggams at the Fairmont Hotel’s Venetian Room on Nov. 2. Joseph Moran

by Paul Parish

al Performances devoted last weekend in Berkeley to Schubert. Sunday afternoon the great pianist Richard Goode played the last three sonatas in Zellerbach Hall, while Friday and Saturday nights that wonderful stage was given to the dancers of Sasha Waltz and guests, accompanied by pianist Cristina Marton and mezzo-soprano Ruth Sandhoff. See page 30 >>

Sasha Waltz company dancers in Impromptus.

Sebastian Bolelsch

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

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

<< Out There

22 • Bay Area Reporter • October 30-November 5, 2014

Vintage For the birds Fashion Expo T

by Roberto Friedman

relevant operatic and vocal works. The piece is in the he ease of taking twoform of an extended song day getaways is one of with five instrumental interthe Bay Area’s great perks, ludes, meditations on five November 1-2 with so much natural beauty young men who committed and wonder only a short suicide: Justin Aaberg, Seth drive from the pulse and Walsh, Asher Brown, Zach Hall of Flowers, Golden Gate Park frenetic energy of the city. Harrington, and Tyler CleRecently Out There and our menti.” 1199 9th Avenue@ Lincoln Way, S.F. #1 Pepi were offered a rejuRainbow Chamber Players SATURDAY 10:30-6pm Admission venating stay at the Bodega is composed of members of SUNDAY 11:00-5pm Bay Lodge, and we availed the Bay Area Rainbow SymStudents $15 ourselves of the opportunity phony [BARS], dedicated to $5 on Early Buy $25 Vintage Clothing with alacrity. 9-10:30am increasing visibility and chalSunday for Women & Men Our first association lenging stereotypes of LGBT ($2 off regular with Bodega Bay is that it admission composers and instrumenwith ad) served as location shooting talists, connecting with aufor Hitchcock’s immortal diences of all communities. 415-468-7482 thriller The Birds, and just This concert will welcome like Tippi Hedren, we got in members of the Association close personal touch with the of Gay and Lesbian Psychiaabundant nature in the vitrists [AGLP] and the AmerJason Stout cinity. Unlike Tippi, we were ican Psychiatric Association there for a coastal retreat, A fire-pit in the newly renovated outdoor area of [APA] who are attending the ensconced in a hotel that has the Bodega Bay Lodge. 66th Institute on Psychiatrecently completed a major ric Services. The concert is renovation. The Lodge offers free, although donations for ing a sand spit splayed out between six acres of newly landscaped BARS are encouraged. A rethe Bay, a tidal pond and the ocean. grounds surrounding a heated pool, ception will follow the performance It was easy to spot coastal birds, and an oversized, infinity-edge hot tub, at 538 Sanchez St. (at 18th St.) in SF. we checked off many boxes on our an outdoor shower and fire pits, all birding list: great blue heron, oysHistoric voicings with sweeping views of the rough tercatcher, cormorant, great egret, Many Bay Area LGBT operaand wild Pacific. snowy egret, plover and scrub jay. lovers are drawn to the world of the We dove into the pool and We were channeling Tippi Hedren, countertenor. Now Bill Doggett, a promptly lost our key-card, which except the birds were not our foes specialist in African American opslipped out of our shorts as we but our fine feathered friends. era history and a Founding Board splashed around. Pepi was our hero The Bodega Bay Lodge is of Director of Los Angeles Opera’s as usual, diving headfirst a luxurious stay, located African Americans for LA Opera diinto the deep end to reat 103 Coast Highway vision, shares news of a rare and histrieve the card, sticking One in Bodega Bay, toric casting of three black counterto the pool floor, and CA. For more info, tenors in one production currently bring it up. A single go to bodegabaylodge. on the boards in the Southland. large bubble escaped com. LA Opera is presenting an innofrom his mouth as he vative staging by Barrie Kosky of surfaced for air. Chamber music English Baroque composer Henry Our deluxe suite An upcoming conPurcell’s time-revered opera Dido came complete with a cert by the Rainbow and Aeneas. The re-emergence of beautiful coastal view, Chamber Players, Only Baroque opera as an integral repera wood-burning Air, features the West Coast toire genre in opera houses around fireplace, and a pripremiere of an anti-gay-bullying the world has produced the revate patio. We made it over to the piece. The concert comes up on surfacing of a voice type showcased redesigned lobby, with oversized Sat., Nov. 1, 6 p.m., at St. Matthew’s during the Baroque opera era, the couches, leather chairs, restored Lutheran Church, 3281 16th St. countertenor voice, originally perhardwood and slate floors, for a (at Dolores) in SF. The first three formed by an elite group of men cozy wine-and-cheese hour before works on the program are part of known as castrati. One of the most our reservation for dinner. Under BAR 3.75x5 online appointment ad v3.indd 1 8/15/14 10:17 AM the group’s LGBTQ Performers celebrated castrato singers of the the direction of Executive Chef Jeff and Composers Series: Miguel del Baroque era (1600-1750) was the Reilly, the Duck Club restaurant Aguila, Salon Buenos Aires (exlegendary singer Farinelli, whose offers Sonoma coastal cuisine with cerpt); David del Tredici, Acrostic life was the subject of an awardspectacular views. Local seafood Dennis Song (chamber version);  winning 1994 film. and sustainable, regional ingrediTobenski, Only Air (chamber verIn recent years, aficionados of ents pair beautifully with Sonoma sion, West Coast Premiere); and JoBaroque opera have delighted in the County wines. hann Strauss II/arranger Arnold beautiful singing of countertenors We took a hike in the nearby Schoenberg, Kaiser-Walzer (EmDavid Daniels, Andreas Scholl, Doran Regional Park, encompassperor Waltz). Brian Asawa and Ian Howell. At Here’s the backgrounder: “Only LA Opera’s Dido and Aeneas, operaFi n d i n g love i n a wo r ld o F hate Air is a 20-minute work for voice goers are encountering an historic and chamber ensemble with a text first: Three African American counNEW CONSERVATORY THEATRE CENTER In Association with by poet Kathryn Levy that memotertenors – John Holiday, Darryl Dave Madsen & Rick Norris, Executive Producers Present rializes the LGBT teenagers who Taylor and G. Thomas Allen – are have taken their own lives due to making their LA Opera debuts at anti-gay bullying. Originally comonce. To our knowledge, this has posed for voice and orchestra and never happened on an American or commissioned by the Illinois State an international opera stage. University Symphony Orchestra, Dido and Aeneas is featured in a this chamber version was comspecial double bill with 20th-centumissioned and premiered by The ry master Bela Bartok’s rarely perSecret Opera, a New York-based formed Bluebeard’s Castle, through opera company dedicated to preNov. 15. Tickets and info: laopera. senting provocative and socially org.t

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Theatre>>

October 30-November 5, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 23

Power to the people! by Richard Dodds

itting with college friends in a dorm room around 1970, we found vicarious danger and a smattering of imagined relevance listening to Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” Today, of course, you can watch revolutions in real-time video between the tweets. In Party People at Berkeley Rep, a young activist tries to spark greying veterans of the Black Panthers and the Young Lords with the suggestion that a rekindled revolution can now have its own website. He is laughed at, but not long after, one of the elders talks about the benign community programs these groups provided amid their more militant activities. “Google it,” this socialwar veteran challenges the audience, therein invoking, with inadvertent irony, the services of a corporate colossus. Everything from cats that flush toilets to extremist brutality in faraway countries can be commodified these days. These confused realities are a central part of Party People, a musical play that imagines a reunion of surviving Black Panthers and the Latino-based Young Lords, whose memories of their glory days are variously rueful, proud, sad, and vengeful – and very often in conflict with each other. To further twist the situation, these guests find that they are players in a performance piece

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Steven Sapp plays a Black Panthers veteran invited to an uneasy reunion party of former militants in Party People at Berkeley Rep.

that the well-intentioned, if insensitively ambitious, young organizers are recording. It’s just one more commodification of movements that once seemed so untainted by the big bad system. The performance ensemble known as Universes created Party People both from research and from interviews with many of the survivors of those turbulent earlier times. While many familiar names are in-

voked, including Bobby Seale, Fred Hampton, Eldridge Cleaver, and Huey P. Newton, the characters on stage are either amalgams or fictional. With 12 performers playing even more characters, it isn’t always possible to clearly grasp their histories or their relationships to one another. And yet both as individuals and as an ensemble, this cast creates a mighty roar through song, dance, rap, and traditional dialogue.

Universes is made up of Steven Sapp, Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, and William Ruiz, and they are also part of the cast. Liesl Tommy, who first directed Party People at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, creates a controlled kaleidoscope on Marcus Doshi’s loft-like set rigged out with video screens and capped with a huge amusement park-like sign spelling out “Revolution!” that is part of the organizers’ misconceived notion of

what this party should look like. The guests of honor, many of them reluctant participants, are both in the past and the present as they recreate moments from more than 40 years ago, try to communicate the passions that once motivated them, and play out anew simmering feuds left over from early days. There are acknowledgements of movement missteps, including a bitter soliloquy by the widow of a white cop caught up in the crossfire, and the paranoia fueled by an obsessive FBI’s efforts at infiltration and misinformation. The volatile moods can take the form of a stylized ballet with rifles in Millicent Johnnie’s choreography, a fiercely angry song about prison life, communal production numbers with a kind of Hair-like feel, and a particularly effective aria-rant by Steven Sapp as one of the grizzled veterans of the movement. We are guests of this party perhaps longer than we might like, but then again, the onstage guests are not at some tidy social. They are overflowing with emotion, all part of an epoch that was as fiery as it was brief. Those emotions turn out to be contagious, and we all leave the party a little shaken and a little wiser.t Party People will run at Berkeley Rep through Nov. 16. Tickets are $29-$89. Call (510) 647-2949 or go to berkeleyrep.org.

Spoiler alert: tragedy looms by Philip Campbell

he San Francisco Opera revived its classic production of Puccini’s beloved potboiler Tosca last week for an abbreviated run of five performances at the War Memorial Opera House. Always a crowdpleaser and an equally solid guarantee on the rent, this latest visit with the diva in distress did little to justify yet another appearance of the tired staging, but offered instead a much better reason to live, the truly stellar SFO debut of Armenian soprano Lianna Haroutounian in the title role. Production designer Thierry Bosquet recreated and adapted Armando Agnini’s original sets and costumes from the performance that inaugurated the War Memorial in 1932, and with Jose Maria Condemi blocking the action for the third time since 2008, this is the production we have been seeing since the reopening of the Opera House after renovations in 1997. It feels slightly impolite to notice that, despite the painterly detail and obviously costly materials, the look of the production is at best evocative of an era. The quaint sets remain impressive enough to frame the action without much distraction, however, and despite Condemi’s lackluster and occasionally unfocused direction, no one bumps into them, either. Tosca is all about the singing anyway, and putting the three central characters in positions

where they can best be seen (bless the inventor of the follow spot) and heard is all we really need. Oh yeah, a good conductor couldn’t hurt, either. The current restoration of the legendary “shabby little shocker” certainly has everything musical in its place. You won’t hear a better sung Tosca in a long, long time, and conductor Riccardo Frizza has tamed the slightly disjointed but wonderfully live acoustics of the orchestra pit to a rich symphonic sweep that never overpowers the vocalists and still highlights some wonderful details. Returning in roles they debuted in the 2012 revival are American tenor Brian Jagde as the heroine’s ardent lover Mario Cavaradossi, and American bass-baritone Mark Delavan as her vile tormentor, the corrupt Baron Scarpia. Secondary roles are essayed by bass-baritone Dale Travis as the amusing old Sacristan; bass Scott Connor as the escaped political prisoner Cesare Angelotti (he is pivotal in getting the lovers into the mess that brings them down); and tenor Joel Sorenstein as Scarpia’s slimy henchman Spoletta. Each was well-cast (especially the veteran Travis), and all of them made a solid contribution to the storytelling, even if Bosquet had Connor’s character looking like he had escaped from a Biblical reenactment rather than the feared prison in the Castel Sant’Angelo.

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Lianna Haroutounian as the title heroine in San Francisco Opera’s Tosca.

Brian Jagde is making quite a name for himself as a Puccini tenor. We thought he was dream casting in Madama Butterfly most recently, and he has a big, beautiful voice that can ride the waves of the largest orchestra. What we liked best about his authentic Pinkerton was his distinctive American quality. It proves a bit of a drawback here. We recognize Jagde’s nicely detailed touches of character, but we would never mistake him for a passionate Italian painter in the streets of Rome, maybe a nice Yank on an art scholarship. His singing still remains bold, and

Soundtracking by Gregg Shapiro

hroughout his prolific career as a film-score composer, the late Henry Mancini won four Oscars and 20 Grammys. The scores he wrote for the movies Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Pink Panther and Charade have become part of the 20th century pop-culture canon. Songs including “Moon River” (from Tiffany’s), “Baby Elephant Walk” (from Hatari), “Charade,” and of course,

the brilliant “Theme from The Pink Panther” have all found their rightful place in the American songbook. Mancini even collaborated with gay poet/songwriter Rod McKuen on the soundtrack to Me, Natalie, starring Patty Duke. The nine-CD box set Henry Mancini: The Classic Soundtrack Collection (RCA/ Legacy/Sony Music) features 18 soundtracks, including Two for the Road, Darling Lili, Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? and the

Peter Sellers comedy The Party. One of the most acclaimed movies of 2014, Richard Linklater’s groundbreaking Boyhood set a new standard for filmmaking production, filmed as it was over the course of several years. Like the movie itself, Music from the Motion Picture Boyhood (Nonesuch) spans a number of years during the first 14 of the 21st century, from new compositions such as See page 27 >>

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Brian Jagde as Cavaradossi in San Francisco Opera’s Tosca.

his duets with Haroutounian are absolutely thrilling. He is idiomatic enough for this production, and the audience responded with cheers. Delavan is also at home in his altogether more complicated role of Scarpia, a hot mess of crudity, suavity and downright depravity. What a pleasure he must be to play, and while there are a few moments when the bass-baritone lacks richness, he is clearly having himself a tremendous field day. That is, of course, until his female prey does him in. Don’t pretend this is a plot-spoiler, everybody knows the melodrama is not going to end well for any of the

protagonists. They are just going to sound fabulous while meeting their respective dooms. Lianna Haroutounian in her SFO and role debut never stopped sounding fabulous until she threw herself off the Castel Sant’Angelo’s parapet. The diminutive soprano has one of those voices that one can’t seem to get enough of. Sweet, steady and amazingly powerful, she has just enough edge to add bite and a creamy richness that eases her through a breathtaking range. She looks pretty in most of her costumes (well, that Act I number should really go), and the dramatic red of her gown in Act II adds to her dramatic effectiveness. But Haroutounian’s Tosca is not the regal diva of Callas, nor the matronly woman in love of Milanov or Caballe. Instead she is one of Puccini’s “little women” trapped and vulnerable, defined by love. It is a perfectly valid approach, and Haroutounian is at her most believable when she plays the surprisingly innocent singer as an essentially simple girl lost in the passions and cruelties of the real world. You couldn’t witness a more exciting Company debut, and the venerable walls of the War Memorial were echoing with the audience’s agreement. Lianna Haroutounian made some history of her own in a historic house.t Tosca plays through Nov. 8.

<< Fine Art

24 • Bay Area Reporter • October 30-November 5, 2014

Portraits of the supremely talented

by Sura Wood

nlike his contemporaries Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, who were kissed by the stardust of the fashion industry and achieved celebrity by association, photographer Arnold Newman was a free agent who never became a household name. Though he didn’t have a signature style, the prolific Newman was nonetheless a highly regarded, influential 20th-century post-war photographer whose portraits graced countless covers of Life and Look in the golden age of picture magazines. Arnold Newman: Masterclass, a retrospective of his seven-decade career now at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, includes 200 vintage black & white photographs culled from a cache of 8,000 images. Most are portraits of his famous subjects, many of them leaders in their respective fields of endeavor, but the majority are of noted creative artists, from David Hockney, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Picasso, and a dapper Sir Cecil Beaton holding court in his English country manse, to the commanding Manhattan developer Robert Moses, and a macho Norman Mailer, barely 30 and already well on his way to becoming an even bigger ass. Trained as a painter, Newman resisted the popular propensity for putting illustrious sitters frontand-center in the frame, sometimes posing them in front of their work. Others poke their heads out from behind a door, or peer through a scrim. In a career-defining work, a pensive Igor Stravinsky is positioned at the far left of the picture, seated at his grand piano, nearly dwarfed by the instrument. Finnish architect and furniture designer Eero Saarinen, nestled in one of his iconic chairs and shot against a white background, occupies a fraction of the visual space. Divided into 10 sections that delineate Newman’s various approaches – i.e., collaging, experiments with natural and artificial light sources – the extensive exhibi-

Arnold Newman/Getty Images

“Leonard Bernstein, composer and conductor, New York.” Gelatin silver print (1946) by Arnold Newman, part of Arnold Newman: Masterclass at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

Arnold Newman/Getty Images

“Major Robert Michael White, military aircraft test pilot, with X–15, California.” Gelatin silver print (1950) by Arnold Newman, part of Arnold Newman: Masterclass at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

tion, which is almost too much of a good thing, expands on how he thought and practiced his craft. In addition to numerous portraits, it features a few architectural studies and still lifes that are less impressive than his portraiture, as well as test prints and contact sheets with the artist’s handwritten notations. Adaptable and intuitive, Newman was known for transporting his equipment to the homes and work habitats of the accomplished, powerful and gifted cultural figures he photographed, rather than shooting staged images in an austere studio. (He disdained the cult of celebrity; Paris Hilton and other paparazzi objects of desire weren’t admitted to the gallery of movers and shakers in his portfolio.) Using a large-format camera and tripod, he would take 10, 20, sometimes as many as 50 photographs in a session, depending on his subject’s time and their openness to the process. He made

spontaneous decisions on site, depending on what and whom he encountered in front of his camera, a technique closer to the on-therun tactics of photojournalists and street photographers, but he maximized control in the dark room. Meticulous and precise, Newman was a perfectionist when it came to cropping, and did much of his own printing. Newman’s photographs don’t hook you with drama or motion, and they lack the slickness and “don’t you wish you were me” glamour of Avedon’s catalogue, but his formal though unconventional compositions and eye for telling details draw you in. Gazing sideways at the camera, a louche Truman Capote (1977), sans trousers, a hat cocked coquettishly over his brow, reclines on a divan in his living room, perhaps recovering from a bender; a kitschy statue of a poodle is parked on the floor. An imperious

Martha Graham, the self-dramatizing diva of modern dance, is terrifying even when standing still. Her makeup and upswept hair severe, she’s in a dark, flowing robe, a lone figure at an empty ballet barre. Choreographer/dancer Jerome Robbins (1958) fares better; in his rehearsal studio, he’s a feral, kinetic live-wire poised to leap off the stool on which he’s temporarily alighted. Ambition, genius and ferocious intensity combine in a lean-and-hungry Leonard Bernstein (1946), a portrait of a young artist on the rise, with charisma and talent to burn. He leans in, his forearms resting on the table, a lock of hair falling across his forehead. Philip Glass (1981) is shot, fittingly, behind a wall of glass doors, his arms askew, a madman locked in an aural asylum. Surrealist Max Ernst, his face barely perceptible through a haze of cigarette smoke, is seated in front of a towering throne chair, a tribal sculpture to his right; and the Hungarian/French photographer Brassai, with his thick build and beefy hands, stands in front of a blank white canvas wearing a soiled smock and a jaunty workman’s cap, looking like the neighborhood butcher. Posing for what could be construed as a bohemian version of

American Gothic, Alfred Stieglitz stood and regarded the camera while his wife and mentoree, Georgia O’Keeffe, sat rigid and upright, facing away from him and toward the wall, an insightful portrait of power politics in a complicated marriage. Often empathetic, Newman could be brutal. He’s said to have exacted revenge on the monstrous captain of German industry and war criminal Alfred Krupp, for whom the Holocaust was a business growth opportunity. Krupp exploited – and worked to death – slave labor provided by the Nazis, and returned the favor by manufacturing armaments. For a 1963 portrait taken on assignment for Newsweek, a touché stroke described as one of photography’s greatest “character assassinations,” Newman lit Krupp’s shadowy face from the sides and below, his chin resting on his clasped hands, while the evil machinery on the factory floor cranked behind him, transforming the corporate titan into Bela Lugosi or a refugee from a horror film. Reportedly, after Krupp saw the pictures, he warned Newman he would have him deigned persona non grata in Germany.t Through Feb. 1, 2015.

How not to talk about Hiroshima by Erin Blackwell

iroshima Mon Amour is the greatest film ever made. That was my conviction halfway through the press screening, and I still agreed with myself at the end, doubled up crying. The tears were deep and diffuse. I’m not sure whom I was crying for. All of us. Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), a complex film defying classification, is a love story between a Frenchwoman and a Japanese man that lasts a day. In that time, concentrated into 90 minutes onscreen, her wounds from World War II are balanced against his, in a painstaking indictment of other people’s lack of compassion. Must see, starting October 31 at the Vogue Theater in San Francisco. This is “the first theatrical engagement in decades,” and “a stunning new 4K restoration.” I quote from press materials. My own eyes witnessed the sharp black-and-white images searing into my soul like love letters. The last time I saw it, decades ago, I was too young to understand much, and yet I feel now as though it somehow guided my understanding in the intervening years. Everything you need to know about life as lived outside the United States, beyond the reach of our propaganda bath, inside cultures we deny the existence of, is here. In the midst of tragedy, Hiroshima holds out hope. “Impossible to talk about Hiro-

Courtesy Argos Films/Rialto Pictures

Eiji Okada and Emmanuelle Riva in Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959).

shima,” runs a line from the film. “All you can do is talk about the impossibility of talking about Hiroshima.” The same can be said of a film acknowledged as a masterpiece on its release almost 50 years ago. Which reminds me, it’s been 70 years since the U.S. dropped an atom bomb on Japan. Impossible to talk about. Somehow, though, scenarist Marguerite Duras and filmmaker Alain Resnais, in a partnering of literary and cinematic genius never equaled, manage to juxtapose the shame of war and the need for love, while elaborating a new lan-

guage of image and sound that remains avant-garde. Hiroshima Mon Amour began as a commission for a documentary by Resnais, which blossomed into a love story with the hiring of Duras. The documentary impulse informs the film and lifts the love story out of the trough of she-said, he-said inevitabilities, into a historic meeting of two people from cultures once at war, with a profound need to bridge the gap into which they were born. Gently and irrevocably we’re introduced to the horrors inflicted on the Japanese people. Let these stand for Vietnam. Iraq. We’re still at it. This is

not a movie for people who think the U.S. can do no wrong. Unless they’d like to open their hearts to reality. After thoroughly immersing us in the fallout of nuclear war, Hiroshima Mon Amour opens the wounds of a young Frenchwoman whose head was shorn at the Liberation for having been the lover of a German soldier. (Duras based this incident on a friend’s fate.) She has to contend first with his dead body, then with her own madness, until one day she’s thrown out of her parents’ house and finds refuge in Paris, as an actress. That’s why Emmanuelle Riva’s character is in Hiroshima, to

play a nurse in a reenactment. She has a habit of loving men she’s not supposed to. Emmanuelle Riva is an ideal embodiment of a French sensibility that cuts through the bureaucratic bullshit to the heart and loins of a situation. She’s not beautiful in a classic sense, let alone a Hollywood sense. Her regard is too intense, her eyes like heavy planets. Her lower lip droops almost in sadness. She’s somewhere between a little girl and an old woman, unable to understand what’s happening to her, yet heroically pursuing a modern existence that offers some pleasures, some desires, some fulfillments. The encounter with Eiji Okada’s character allows her to release the trauma she keeps secret even from her husband back home. He is the ideal lover, Doctor Love, who receives her story of forbidden love as an amulet. Hiroshima Mon Amour is an event, a bomb that goes off inside your psyche, a poetic offensive against those who forget to live while they’re alive, who spend their lives dying and killing. Anyone interested in life, war, love, politics, art, film, French or Japanese culture, Marguerite Duras or Alain Resnais, should go to the Vogue prepared to weep. Skip the popcorn.t Opens Oct. 31 at the Vogue Theater, 3290 Sacramento St., San Francisco.

October 30-November 5, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 25

Fall poetry picks

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Bend to it by Kevin Simmonds; Salmon Poetry, $15; A History of the Unmarried by Stephen S. Mills; The God of Longing by Brent Calderwood; both Sibling Rivalry Press, $14.95 hile the big-brass publishers unleash their epic fall fiction offerings from powerhouse authors like Anne Rice and Stephen King, there is much joy to be had in reading newly minted, just-released poetry books from the smaller presses. Here are a few standout selections. From County Clare, Ireland publisher Salmon Poetry comes a new collection by Edward Stanley Award-winning San Francisco poet and composer Kevin Simmonds, Bend to it, which follows his impressive 2013 debut, Mad for Meat. Dedicating the book to “momma and the soothing ruckus of New Orleans,” Simmonds produces a generous collection of minimalist, raw poems rife with themes of violation, murder, pleasure, desire, and sensation. Crisp observations from an altar boy’s memories fill three pages with words bound together by truth and experience, as does a visit to the San Francisco Opera for a Sunday matinee. The son in “Lie” would give up “the soft ambulance of a man’s body” if only his father would notice him. Whether taking Celexa for depression, recounting the murderous spree of Andrew Cunanan, or imagining the terrors of being a Native American victim of sex trafficking, the heady subjects in Simmonds’ poetry are matched by his nuances of language and economic use of words and page-spacing. Manhattan-based poet and Lambda Award winner (for his 2012 poetry book He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices) Stephen S. Mills channels the thought process of those who are jubilantly single or appreciatively divorced from crash-and-burn relationships. His new collection A History of the Unmarried sparkles with the electric-

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ity found in intersections: bodies, minds, hearts, eyes, all delivered in clipped passages written with emotion, a flowing cadence and storytelling power. A boyfriend whose partner is away on business halfheartedly attempts to hook up, lamenting that “it’s hard being an adventurous sex maniac on the prowl at 3 a.m., our bed empty, the dog licking his ass.” Another piece is written from the perspective of a gay man considering the sex appeal of movie stars and the dire condition of patients in his care. Mills also addresses what the “domestic” in domestic partners really means, and presents a delightfully spot-on rumination on turning 30. All of these fun, insightful poems are fortified with pages of “Housewife Etiquette” rules, hilarious stand-alone declarations on how to “please your husband” with robotic 1950s-era instructions on minimizing noise, looking pretty, speaking softly, and having sex (“Don’t seem overly excited. Make sure to turn off the lights.”) San Francisco poet and A&U magazine editor Brent Calderwood’s latest, The God of Longing, includes 31 affecting poems that entertain with wit and perceptive candor, and scorch with bold-faced honesty. Dedicated to his brother, “Elegy” memorializes a beloved family member

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taken too soon. “Disclosure” traces a boy’s knack for remedying accidents right up to his adulthood. The 10part poem “Evolution” flows across Radical Faerie parties in San Francisco to the boyfriends of fuckbuddies to the idea of an open relationship when all the writer wants to do is “stay home with the cats.” Then there’s the priceless poem about anal bleaching and keeping our priorities in check, or not: “But don’t fret about raising the minimum wage or bringing our troops home – just primp and preen.” Following along the same theme is the collection’s closing piece, a somewhat scathing reflection on the nature of the increasingly detached, “faceless,” superficial contemporary gay community. Admittedly true, we are a collective that worships the gym, a place where “we could be beautiful, built to please,” yet “we’re online till god-knows-when for a knight with a horse in his BVDs.” But the men online, on our cell phones, and often those right in front of us are quite often “headless men.” The truth hurts, and Calderwood isn’t afraid to tell it like it is.t

Fear of a dry planet by David Lamble

t’s both a treat and a dilemma for a critic when a new film evokes warm feelings beyond its own considerable merits, when it provokes an aesthetic/sensory response that one only accords the best of the best. Australian-born writer/director Jake Paltrow has pulled an Oscar-worthy rabbit from out of his Down Under hat. His Young Ones, opening Friday at the Roxie Theater, is a beautifully lensed parable about how a severe drought drives men mad. It rises to a level of filmmaking not seen on big screens hereabouts since Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Like Blood, Young Ones is set in a believably harsh moonscape slice of desert. Meant to represent life in an unspecified American state, the film was in fact shot in an arid part of South Africa near the Namibian border. Its desolate beauty hauntingly underscores humankind’s eternal quest to hunker down in hellish spots fit for neither man nor beast. In addition to becoming a character in itself, the landscape calls to mind tales of “mad dogs and Englishmen” caught out in the mid-day sun. This lunatic element deftly adds a hint of madness to even the most normally unflappable of creatures. Paltrow divides his lunacy into three chapters. In Chapter One, a desperate farmer, Ernest Holm (Michael Shannon), finds himself one step ahead of the bank seizing

Courtesy of Screen Media

Michael Shannon as Ernest Holm in director Jake Paltrow’s Young Ones.

his miserable little farm, parched to dustbowl proportions. Ernest is waging a losing war to convince brutal men, the ones in charge of distributing scarce water to local farmers, to construct a pipeline to irrigate his fields. Chapter OFF Two introduces a hyper-handsome WITH villain, Flem Lever (Nicholas Hoult). Flem: even the name suggests a nasty cur straight out of Faulkner country. Hoult’s incendiary good looks put a delicious spin on his character’s grand plan to become the local water baron, an ambition that places him on a deadly path that will intersect fatefully with Ernest and his See page 26 >>

10%

LAURA BENANTI

BETTY BUCKLEY

TELLY LEUNG

November 7 - 8

November 13 - 16

November 22 - 23

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

094394.01_HNSF - Bay Area Reporter_10-30 ROUND #: MECH Trim: 5.75in x 7.625in

Bleed: none

Live: 5.75in x 7.625in

Color Space: CMYK

Fonts: Futura

<< Film

26 • Bay Area Reporter • October 30-November 5, 2014

Shining light in dark places

Courtesy of Netflix

Human rights investigator Anna Neistat (center) on the job in Katy Chevigny & Ross Kauffman’s ETeam, opening Friday at the Presidio Theater.

Human rights investigators Peter Bouckaert (left) and Fred Abrahams (right) in Katy Chevigny & Ross Kauffman’s E-Team.

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rail-thin teenage son, Jerome (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Chapter Three belongs to Jerome, and will conclude with the triumphant lad being served a hamburger, French fries and a Coke by his admiring older sister, Mary (Elle Fanning). For those viewers for whom the term sci-fi attached to a movie is akin to a witch’s curse, it can fairly be said that Paltrow and company have truly delivered the most adult of adult Westerns. For pure film buffs, Young Ones can be described as a cross between the Harlan Ellisoninspired 1975 cult sci-fi classic A Boy and His Dog, with its droll mixture of black humor bordering on misogyny, and the brutal zeitgeist of John Hillcoat’s nihilistic 2005 adult Western The Proposition. In that film, a British-appointed colonial lawman (a dogged Ray Winstone) attempts to bring peace to the 1880s-era Aussie Outback through a pact with the Devil that goes horribly awry, with an almost Shakespearean, bloody third-act resolution. For queer viewers who are fans of plucky-boy heroes, Kodi SmitMcPhee is a revelation. The true hero of this dark morality play, the Australian-born/LA-residing screen actor combines plausible innocence with a world-weary wisdom that makes very believable his multiple roles as avenging angel, author’s message and last boy standing. A decade ago, Smit-McPhee attracted acclaim as the young boy following his dad through a post-apocalyptic world in Hillcoat’s capable adaptation of the bestselling Cormac McCarthy novel The Road. The lad has arrived and slyly steals

SAN FRANCISCO

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Young Ones

From page 25

KUR – Bay Area Reporter

ing moment in the film. The nasty smirk that spreads across the face of this imprisoned devil hints at the murderous motives hidden behind the mask of official state power in a still largely lawless part of the world. Warning to the casual moviegoer: this is a graphically illustrated, intense 88-minute probe into the worst kind of state-sanctioned violence. Watching it may cause you to question long-held views about the United States’ role in preventing human-rights abuses, regardless of what those views are. Against the frightful backdrop of current headlines – a murderous attack on the Canadian government in Ottawa, fears of Ebola spreading into the U.S., yet-unimagined blips on the 24/7 news cycle – E-Team reveals the real grownups who risk their lives to keep us safe. There’s an odd moment of quasi-black humor in Anna and Ole’s Paris flat when Anna’s 12-year-old son requests shrapnel from a Syrian war site. The kid has become an observer of his mom’s insanely perilous day-job, and old beyond his years. The filmmakers and their subjects offer a heartfelt tribute to the late American combat photographer James Foley (1973-2014), executed by agents of the self-proclaimed “Islamic State.”t

– TORONTO STA R

N OV 1 4 –JA N 18 AT & T P A R K

37696R

“K UR IOS IS CIRQUE DU SOLEIL’S STRONGEST ACT IN Y E A R S.”

Écheance : 23/10/2014 Infographe : Eric Couleur : CMYK Correction : XXX

y day begins at 3:45 a.m. with an information vitamin: the national edition of The New York Times. I rely on the Times’ editors to deliver the world in a tidy little package, heavy on analysis and devoid of soap opera – some would say devoid of messy human feelings. My Times fix comes via my Britishborn/American-raised Uncle Bill, a Times front-page copy editor whose advice arrived on Times embossed stationary. Bill took me to a Broadway moviehouse screening of The Manchurian Candidate, the John Frankenheimer-directed paranoid thriller starring Frank Sinatra, during the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis, following a tour of the Times’ 43rd Street newsroom. If my uncle instilled in me a desire to experience life without unpredictable human entanglements but not without disturbing subtext, the actor who continues to express this viewpoint – in effect, my cinema uncle – is Richard Jenkins. Jenkins’ career-defining role was the widowed NYU professor Walter Vale, a terminally bored academic who is spiritually resurrected when

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his path crosses that of Tarek, a NYC subway-busking, Syrian-born musician. The Visitor (written/directed by Tom McCarthy) ends with Tarek being deported back to Syria. Like a fresh flower created from the cuttings of an old plant, the powerful new documentary from Kate Chevigny and Ross Kauffman E-Team tracks the fates of their real-life Syrian friends in a way that mirrors my cinema-inspired fears. Chevigny and Kauffman embed themselves with a plucky quartet, the Human Rights Watch emergency investigators (“E-Team”) Anna, Ole, Fred and Peter. The flamboyant, red-haired Russian Anna Neistat is married to the soft-spoken, boyishly handsome Norwegian Ole Solvang, while Peter Bouckaert, a weapons expert whom Rolling Stone magazine has dubbed “the James Bond of human rights investigators,” works closely with E-Team founder Fred Abrahams. They round out a tough unit whose goal is to prevent human-rights atrocities by nailing down what actually happened through exhaustive interviews with eyewitnesses. Their expertly harvested human evidence was used to convict international outlaws like former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. Abraham’s testimony at Milosevic’s war crimes trial is a chill-

Format : 5.75” x 7.625” Monté : 100%

by David Lamble

Courtesy of Screen Media

Nicholas Hoult as Flem Lever in director Jake Paltrow’s Young Ones.

the movie from a talented supporting cast. Smit-McPhee’s saucer-sized dark eyes are perfectly suited to the director’s device, deployed in the second half of the film, of showing character through intense close-ups. Paltrow’s obsessive use of this device, an elbow in the audience’s ribs, is a gamble that I think will pay dividends, both in the film’s big-screen run as well as in its descent through the cable-TV food chain. British glam-boy actor Nicholas Hoult has also come a long way from his early screen appearances, notably as the endearing kid to Hugh Grant’s hedonist bachelor in Chris Weitz’s About a Boy. The climatic showdown between Hoult and Smit-McPhee is a glorious dark-humor classic, with the kid’s deadly, downward glance framed in an iconic way, as if it were an intentional sendup of Children of the Corn. With all its understated, droll touches, Young Ones improves significantly on repeated viewings.t

DVD>>

October 30-November 5, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 27

Turning the screw for Halloween by David-Elijah Nahmod

few weeks ago, the B.A.R. reviewed the Blu-Ray release of The Innocents (1961). The classic ghost story, based on Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, remains a brilliant tale of spirits and sexual repression. Were the children possessed by the ghosts of Quint, the handyman, and Miss Jessell, the Governess? Or is the repressed new Governess (Deborah Kerr), who hears the spirits whispering “make love to me,” simply mad? Seven years after The Innocents, the daytime TV soap opera Dark Shadows was riding a wave of enormous popularity. Unlike other soaps, Dark Shadows told tales of vampires, werewolves, witches and ghosts. Today it’s fondly remembered for its flyaway sets (remember those shaking, papier-mache tombstones?) and cheesy special effects (bats on a string!). But DS also had flashes of brilliance. A storyline now known as The Haunting of Collinwood, inspired by Turn of the Screw, was a terrifying ghost story that holds up when viewed on DVD today. DS writers took Henry James’ Peter Quint and turned him into Quentin Collins (David Selby). The Quint/Quentin name switch was one of many clues which let viewers in on the fact that they were watching a semi-remake of The Innocents. Six-foot-tall Quentin, dressed in a Victorian frock and with mutton-chop sideburns, had a chilling visage. As violent storms raged around the great house of Collinwood, Quentin took possession of the children, David and Amy (David Henesy, Denise Nickerson). The children were made to plot murders – there were even daring hints of sexual impropriety. In one disturbing scene, 12-year-old David appears to attempt to seduce his shocked governess, Maggie (Kathryn Leigh Scott). It’s not an isolated incident. Earlier on, David almost kisses 10-year-old Amy, who backs away from him nervously. As Quentin’s hold on the children becomes stronger, Maggie and Aunt Elizabeth (1940s movie queen Joan Bennett) appear to be helpless. Will they have to leave Collinwood in order to save the children?

Soundtracks

From page 23

“Summer Noon” by Tweedy, to songs by the Black Keys, Coldplay, Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend, Wilco and the Flaming Lips. Even though they weren’t included on the Boyhood soundtrack, the songs “Nao Acorde o Nenem,” “Em Todo Lugar” and “Coisa Boa,” written and performed by Brazilian musician Moreno Veloso, could also be heard in the movie. All three of those songs, along with eight others, can be found on Coisa Boa (Luaka Bop), Veloso’s first new studio album in 10 years. The writing/directing film debut of Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, God Help the Girl could best be described as a musical about making music. With that in mind, it would make sense one of the best things about God Help the Girl: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Milan) would be the music. The disc combines songs by Belle & Sebastian, the all-female B&S offshoot God Help the Girl, and new Murdoch tunes performed by the film’s actors. If you’re a fan of B&S, this soundtrack, which also includes dialogue from the movie, should be music to your ears. British classical violinist Dan-

The Haunting of Collinwood story-arc lasted three months, and concluded with a scene right out of James. With the possession of David Collins now complete, Maggie stands at the bottom of the stairs calling to her young charge. Quentin, just out of the camera’s range, is calling to him as well. It’s a magnificent sequence, ending a storyline that remains one of DS’ creative high points. A few days later, viewers traveled with Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) back to the year 1897, to meet the living Quentin. There, they learned how Quentin died, and what he wanted from the children. The Haunting of Collinwood can be purchased as part of the pricey, coffin-shaped DVD box-set Dark Shadows: The Complete Original Series, which offers all 1,225 episodes of the series on 131 discs. It can also be purchased as a standalone DVD featuring the entire storyline edited down into a threehour movie. Dark Shadows: The Haunting of Collinwood includes a complete episode from the 1897 story arc, which reveals what happened the night Quentin Collins died. Unfortunately, the short version is missing that wonderful ending sequence on the stairs. But it remains a scary thrill ride that even non-DS devotees might enjoy. In 1974, three years after Dark Shadows ended its network run, producer Dan Curtis revisited The Turn of the Screw with a made-forTV version of the James book. Shot on location in England, it starred Lynn Redgrave, who offered a very good performance as the Governess. iel Hope turns his attention to the “Hollywood Sound” on Escape to Paradise: The Hollywood Album (Deutsche Grammophon). It’s mostly comprised of film score and theatrical compositions, by composers fortunate enough to escape from Hitler’s Europe to exile in California. The album is a stunning celebration of survival and creativity. Featured here are a number of pieces by Miklos Rozsa from films such as Spellbound, Ben-Hur and El Cid, as well as work by Franz Waxman (from Come Back, Little Sheba), Kurt Weill (from One Touch of Venus), Herman Hupfeld (from Casablanca) and others. As an added bonus, Sting and Max Raabe provide vocals on a couple of songs. Hosted by Allison Janney on public television, Shelter Me is described as an “inspiring” program celebrating “shelter pets with positive and uplifting stories.” Created by filmmaker Steven Latham, Shelter Me is sponsored by Halo, Purely for Pets, the pet-food company founded by Ellen DeGeneres. Songs for Shelter Me (TVX/shelterme.tv) features the wondrous title track written and performed by Mindy Smith, as well as tunes by AI winner Kris Allen, the four-sisters band SHEL, Korby Lenker, Kate York and others.t

In an unusual casting move, Curtis cast actress Megs Jenkins as Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper (Jenkins had portrayed this same role in The Innocents). Curtis directed the film from a taut, literate script by noted sci-fi author William F. Nolan. The score by Robert Cobert borrowed heavily from his Dark Shadows score. Kathryn Leigh Scott, DS’ former governess, had a reunion with her old boss, appearing briefly as the ghost of the former governess. Curtis’ Screw employs the strange practice often seen in British TV dramas: shooting indoor scenes on video, while using film for outdoor locations. The change in resolution from shot to shot can be jarring, but the film’s strong script, superb acting, and brilliant source material allow The Turn of the Screw to stand far above most made-for-TV chillers. Both of Curtis’ takes on Henry James’ story are well worth scoping out, though it’s the Dark Shadows version that remains the scarier of the two. Turn of the Screw is also available on DVD.t

ebar.com Arnold Newman Portraits Over 200 photographs of artists, celebrities, and influential figures of the twentieth century. On view through Feb 1, 2015. SPECIAL RELATED EVENTS

Nov 7

Judy Dater on Arnold Newman

Nov 21

Vince Donovan on Composition and Concepts

Dec 5

Margaret Tedesco on Newman and His Dancers

Plan your visit at thecjm.org. Arnold Newman: Masterclass was organized by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography (FEP), Minneapolis, and the Harry Ransom Center, Austin. Patron Sponsorship for The CJM’s presentation is provided by Baird and Joyce Linker. Supporting sponsorship is provided by Naomi and Jeffrey Caspe, Nellie and Max Levchin, Rosanne and Al Levitt, and Howard and Barbara Wollner. Participating sponsorship is provided by Paul Sack. Additional generous support is provided by Sheila Sosnow and Richard Nagler. Major support for The Contemporary Jewish Museum’s exhibitions and Jewish Peoplehood Programs comes from the Koret Foundation. Image: Arnold Newman, Henry Miller, writer, Los Angeles, California, 1976. Gelatin silver print © 1976. Arnold Newman/Getty Images.

<< Out&About

28 • Bay Area Reporter • October 30-November 5, 2014

Out &About

O&A

Shocktoberfest @ The Hypnodrome

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Spookeasy @ Great Star Theatre

Shocktoberfest

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Make a tax-deductible donation to one of over 250 SF LGBT nonprofits Contributions support vital services provided to our community.

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

Thu 30

KEEP THE GOOD WORK GOING !

ebar.com

f you're not voting this week, you can only blame yourself for whatever political stupidity reigns over the next few years. In the meantime, make your choice to see some of these November arts events, many of which take on timely spooky themes through the holiday weekend. For more participatory Halloween fun, see On the Tab, starting on page 33.

Thu 30 Brian Copeland @ The Marsh

The Boy Friend @ Eureka Theatre 42nd Street Moon's new production of Sandy Wilson's send-up of 1920s musical comedies, with three girls on the Riviera in search of love and adventure. $25-$75. Wed & Thu 7pm. Fri 8pm. Sat 6pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Nov. 16. 215 Jackson St. 255-8207. www.42ndStMoon.org

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. www.42ndStMoon.org Recreated from an original Cliff House postcard c. early 1900s.

Holiday Parties at The Cliff House The Terrace Room Offering sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean and historic ambiance, the Terrace Room is a truly unique private event venue for groups up to 120. Private Events Direct 415-666-4027 virginia@cliffhouse.com

The Lands End Room Located in Sutro's, the Lands End Room is a semi-private space for smaller parties of 15 – 49 with California coastal cuisine and awesome views. Large Parties Direct 415-666-4005 lauraine@cliffhouse.com

Call to Book Your Event! 1090 Point Lobos • San Francisco • 415-386-3330 www.CliffHouse.com

David Allen

by Jim Provenzano

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. www.themarsh.com

A Program of the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation

Donna Minkowitz @ SF Public Library The veteran lesbian journalist reads from and discusses her new "magical realist" memoir, Growing up Golem: How I Survived My Mother, Brooklyn and Some Really Bad Dates ; presented by Keshet, Congregation Sha'ar Zahav and the NorCal chapter of the NLGJA. 6pm. Hormel Center, third floor, main library, 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org donnaminkowitz.com

Ego, Insufficiency @ Z Space Director Andy Jorden stages two plays by Dr. Carl Djerassi, accomplished author, playwright, and scientist (inventor of the birth control pill), on the anniversary of the playwright's 90th birthday. $20-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov. 7. 470 Florida St. (866) 8114111. www.zspace.org

Halloween Eve @ Drake Lounge Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF) and the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area (AABA) cohost a costume ball fundraiser for LYRIC. $25, $100 and up. 6pm-9pm. 508 4th St. www.balif.org/event-1746427

Harvest Feast @ Verdi Club The Castro Country Club's annual fundraiser holiday dinner, with host Heklina, and Alaska Thunderfuck a Halloween "Freak Show" theme; plus a silent auction. $75-$1000. 6pm-10pm. 2424 Mariposa St. at Potrero Ave. (800) 838-3006. castrocountryclub.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

The Klipptones @ Off the Grid The local jazz quartet performs live in the East Bay (200 North Rollins Road, Millbrae). 6:30-8pm. Also Nov. 1 at Off the Grid, Emeryville Public Market at Shellmount St. klipptones.com

Magic Parlor @ Chancellor Hotel Whimsical Belle Epoque-style sketch and magic show that also includes historical San Francisco stories; hosted by Walt Anthony; optional pre-show light dinner and desserts. $40. Tickets 50% off in costume thru this weekend. Thu-Sat 8pm. 433 Powell St. www.SFMagicParlor.com

New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre Oct. 30: InForum with Marissa Mayer (Yahoo CEO) and Marc Benioff (Salesforce CEO). 7:15pm. Nov. 1: Scary Cow Film Festival 2pm-11pm. ( www.scarycow.com) Nov. 2: The Princess Bride (1:30pm, $8.50) and Guardians of the Galaxy (4pm, 6:30, 9pm). Nov. 5: The Hundred-Foot Journey (2:50, 7pm) and the gaythemed Love Is Strange (5pm, 9:15). Nov. 6: Mary Woronov in person at a screening of The Chelsea Girls (7pm). $12-$15. 429 Castro St. 621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com

Fri 31

Halloween Cock-tails @ SF SPCA The local animal shelter celebrates the 75th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz film with a costume party for friendly pets and their owners, with food trucks, cocktails and beer. Adopt a dog or cat and all fees will be waived (thru Nov. 2). 5pm-10pm. 201 Alabama St. SFSPCAhalloween.EventBrite.com

Dracula

Halloween-themed stage show transforms the entire theatre into a spooky holiday costume ball, Vaudeville stage acts, trapeze performerers, puppets, cocktails, doors pre-show 8pm, show 9pm. costume ball and dance party afterwards. and a festive Barbary Coast party atmosphere. $55-$65 (VIP $99). Thru Nov 2. 636 Jackson St. www.SpookeasySF.com

Sweeney Todd @ Mountain View Center for the Arts TheatreWorks' production of Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical mastepiece about The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a serial-killing barber in the 19th-century; reset in 1940s London. $19-$74. Tue & Wed 7:30pm. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Also Sun 7pm. Thru Nov. 2. 500 Castro St., Mountain View. (650) 4631960. www.TheatreWorks.org

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

Thriller Dance Classes @ Alonzo King Lines Dance Center Learn the classic choreography from the Michael Jackson Thriller music video, with Rotimi Agbabiaka. $25. 7:30pm and Oct. 31, 7:30pm. 26 7th St., fifth floor. killerthrillerdance.weebly.com

Unusual Shorts @ Oddball Films Enjoy wacky offbeat vintage short films. Thu (Trance Cinemas: The Power of Possession) & Fri (Haunted Halloween Hullabaloo), each $10, 8pm. 275 Capp St. 558-8117. oddballfilms.blogspot.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. (Attend in costume on Oct. 31 and tix are $10). Wed-Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm. Thru Nov. 1. 2961 16th St. at Mission. www.rayoflighttheatre.com

Fri 31 Alien She @ YBCA The first exhibition to showcase the impact and ephemera of the Roit Grrrl movement and culture. Free-$15. Exhibit Tue-Sun 12pm-6pm. thru Jan. 25. 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Ca-Boo-ret @ Hotel Rex Society Cabaret's Halloween-themed vocal showcase night. Costumes encouraged. 8pm. Also, Cabaret Showcase Nov. 1, 8pm. 562 Sutter St. 857-1896. www.societycabaret.com

Cosplay Halloween Ball @ Hotel Kabuki Frolic (fursuit furries) joins forces with the Cosplay peeps (Anime, scifi, superheroes, cartoons) for a fully costumed (required!) night of revelry in the hotel's spacious ballroom, with a cash prize costume contest; DJs Philip Adrian, Sean BASS and Neon Bunny. $25 (gen. adm.)-$130 (VIP open bar). 21+. 7pm-1am. 1625 Post St. www.CosplaySF.com

Out&About>>

Dia le los Muertos @ SOMArts Cultural Center

Songs and Sorrows @ Oakland Museum

Visions at Twilight, a group exhibit of Mexican Day of the Dead-inspired art, shrines and installations. Exhibit Thru Nov. 8. 934 Brannan St. somarts.org

Dias de Los Muertos 20th Anniversary, a group exhibit of the Mexican-themed art. Thru Jan. 4. Also, Judy Chicago: A Butterfly for Oakland, a collection of slides and films of her 1974 Lake Merritt pyrotechnical installation; part of a nationwide group of exhibits celebrating the pioneering feminist artist's 75th birthday; thru Nov. 30. Also, Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California (thru April 12). Free/$15. Reg. hours Wed-Sat 11am-5pm (Fri til 9pm). 1000 Oak St., Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

Dracula @ Smith Center, Ohlone College, Fremont The college theatre department performs Stephen C. Wathen's stage adapatation of Bram Stoker's classic vampire novel. $12-$15. Oct. 31 costume contest includes a $100 cash prize. Also Nov 1, 6-8 and 13-15 at 8pm. ASL-interpreted Nov 7. 43600 Mission Blvd., Fremont. www.smithcenter.com

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde @ Davies Hall Organist Todd Wilson performs an improvised score to the John Barrymore silent film based on the Robert Louis Stevenson horror classic. $20-$65. 201 Van Ness Ave. 8646000. www.sfsymphony.org

Haunted: A Literary Gathering @ Doc Ricketts Wonder Dave hosts a Halloweenthemed literary night, with Baruch Porras-Hernandez, Evan Karp, Lauren Traetto, Jaz Suffi, tomas Moniz and Ivan Hernandez. $10-$13. 8pm. 124 Columbus Ave. 649-6191. docslabsf.com/event/695713

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

Oct 30

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

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

Author Events @ Modern Times Bookstore Nov. 1: Day of the Dead hip hop show with Cambio of Quilomboarte; 7pm. Nov. 6: Tom Gallagher, author of Sub: My Years Underground in America's Schools. 7pm. 2919 24th St. 282-9246. www.mtbs.com Mary Woronov in person at the Castro Theatre. See New & Classic Films, Oct. 30

The Omen, Starring Mary Poppins @ Channel 29 Rare televised screening of the 1994 Sick & Twisted Players' mash-up comedy horror musical, with bonus behind-the-scenes footage. 8pm. www.bavc.org/channel29

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. berkeleyrep.org

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

Shock and Awww @ Shelton Theatre Left Coast Theatre Company's minifestival of six LGBT-themed one-act plays about love, dating and sex, by Chris Maltby, Ron Burch, Joseph Frank, Jami Brandli, Dave Carley and Kristian O'Hare. $19-$38. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov. 22. 533 Sutter St. www.LCTC-SF.org

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

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 4214222. beachblanketbabylon.com

Dia de los Muertos @ Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Annual exhibit and fundraiser includes 12 altar displays and installations, live performances, food and desserts, DJed music, comic Mario Montes. $45-$70. 6pm-9pm. 2868 Mission St. 821-1155. missionculturalcenter.org

Eitetsu Hayashi @ McKenna Theatre Japanese drumming ensemble Eitetsu Fu-Un no Kai performs with SFSU students. $27-$45. 8pm. Also Nov. 2, 3pm. SF State U., 1600 Holloway Ave. 338-2467. www.sfiaf.org

Godzilla on Monster Island @ ATA Gallery Screening of the silliest nof all Godzilla movies; basically a playground for giant creatures; with cult film expert Christian Divine. Free tricks, treats and hot sake. $6. 8pm. 992 Valencia St. 648-0654. www.othercinema.com

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

October 30-November 5, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 29

Leading Ladies and Femme Fatales @ Walt Disney Museum

Sat 1

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. www.waltdisney.org

Mon 3 Mary Poppins

I Got Rhythm @ Martuni's Karen Hirst, Roberta Drake and Tom Shaw play a set of favorites by the brothers Gershwin, and other jazz classics, plus a few audience singalongs. $10. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. www.TomShawTrio.com

Mary Poppins @ Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley Berkeley Playhouse's lighthearted production of Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman and Julian Fellowes’ musical adaptation of P.L. Travers' book and the Disney film. $17-$60. Fri 7pm. Sat 1pm & 6pm. Sun 12pm & 5pm. Thru Dec. 7. 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 8458542. www.BerkeleyPlayhouse.org

My Favorite Barbra @ Speckels Performing Arts Center, Rohnert Park Actress-vocalist Kelly Brandeburg performs a tribute to Barbra Streisand in songs and stories, at this benefit for the performance space. $15-$25. $40 VIP includes orchestra seating, appetizers, dessert and beverages. 7:30pm. Codding Theatre, 5409 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park. (707) 5883400. www.spreckelsonline.com

New Moons @ 4th Street Fine Art, Berkeley Group exhibit of paintings, sculpture and fine art jewelry by five women artists: Suzanne Beaubrun, Anne Marie Hodrick, Erin McGarry, Nuchada Prypiroonrojn and Valeria Sobel. Thru Nov. 7. Fri-Mon 11am6pm. 2000 4th St., Berkeley. www.4thstreetfineart.com

Open Studios @ Citywide The fall annual artists' walking tour invites patrons to visit artists in their studios, including Talavera-Ballon Studio (3712 25th St.), David Barnett and Charlene Eldon (1370 Noe St.) and many others. 11am-6pm. Also Nov. 2. Also Nov. 8 & 9. www.artspan.org/sfopenstudios

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

Sun 2 Cameron Esposito @ The Independent The lesbian comic with a biting wit performs live. $18. 21+. 8pm. 628 Divisadero St. theindependentsf.com www.cameronesposito.com

Forever in the Light @ St. Francis Lutheran Church Candlelight mass and concert of Tomas Luis de Victoria's Missa O Quam Gloriosum, motets, chanted prayers and an All Saints' Day rememberance of those who’ve died from AIDS. 7pm. 152 Church St. near Market. www.sflcsf.org

Roads of Arabia @ Asian Art Museum Roads of Arabia : Archeology and Hidtory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabai, thru Jan. 18. Dual Natures in Ceramics : Eight Contemporary Artists from Korea (thru Feb. 22, 2015). Other exhibits as well. $15. Thru Sept. 14. 200 Larkin St. www.asianart.org

10 Percent @ Comcast David Perry interviews local and visiting community members of note. This week, Josh Rasmussen, co-founder of Zipkick, a new travel app, and legendary photographer and AIDS activist Duane Cramer. 11:30am & 10:30pm. Also Sat & Sun, 10:30pm. Channel 104.

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

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

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

Out & Equal Workplace Summit @ Moscone Center West 16th annual large conference for LGBT professionals and activists working toward employment equality. $605$1725. Thru Nov. 6. 800 Howard St. www.outandequal.org

Pride Party @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Preview of upcoming shows, and a reception for subscribers and donors to the prolific gay theatre company. 5:30-7:45pm. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

Skulls @ California Academy of Sciences

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

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

Meditation Group @ LGBT Center Weekly non-sectarian meditation group; part of the Let's Kick ASS AIDS Survivor Syndrome support group. Tuesdays, 5pm, 1800 Market St. www.letskickASS.org www.sfcenter.org

The News @ SOMArts Cultural Center The Fresh Queer Performance monthly series this time features Caleb Felgin, Frida Ibarra, Xandra Ibarra (La Chica Boom), NCN, seeley quest, Jai Arun Ravine and Lyric Seal. $5. 7:30-9pm. 934 Brannan St. at 9th. www.somarts.org

Wed 5 Planet Booty @ The Independent The Oakland fun funk band performs on a bill with Wallpaper. $15-$17. 8pm. 21+. 628 Divisadero St. www.theindependentsf.com

SF Olympians Festival @ Exit Theatre The Monster Compendium, a marathon of staged readings of new works dealing with mythological creatures in a variety of settings. $10. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov. 22. 156 Eddy St. 673-3847. www.theexit.org

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

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

Thu 6

Tue 4

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

Anthony Friedkin: The Gay Essay @ de Young Museum Exhibit of photos, and an audiovisual installation, by the Los Angeles artist who focused on gay underground culture of the late 1960s and early '70s in SF and LA. Thru Jan. 11, 2015. Lines on the Horizon : Native American Art from the Weisel Family Collection, thru Jan. 4, 2015. Free/$10. Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoungmuseum.org

Absolutely Fabulous @ Stage Werx Live stage versions of three episodes (one each night) of Jennifer Saunder's BBC comedy show. $15-$25. Thu 8pm. Fri 11pm. Nov. 6 & 7, 13 & 14. Dec. 4 & 5, 11 & 12. 446 Valencia St. www.stagewerx.org

SF Dance Film Fest @ Brava Theater

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

<< Theatre

30 • Bay Area Reporter • October 30-November 5, 2014

Leslie Uggams

From page 21

It was in 1950, at age 6, that Uggams made her first professional appearance, on TV’s Beulah show. Now in her early 70s, she has been finding new doors opening to her, including a summer run in Connecticut as Mama Rose in Gypsy, and an upcoming Florida engagement as the title character in Mame. These are the kind of choice roles, not long available to an African-American performer, that are now beckoning her. “I’m always the first one to want to dive off the cliff,” she said recently from her home in New York. This summer, she also reprised her cabaret show, Classic Uggams, at 54 Below, and it gets its first hearing outside New York on Nov. 2 in the Venetian Room as part of Bay Area Cabaret’s season. “I try to associate the songs with stories, and you know I have a lot of stories,” she said. “There are some laughs in the show. We have a good time.” Of course, there are songs from Hallelujah, Baby!, the 1967 musical that won her a Tony Award, and she will dip into Lena Horne’s repertoire because she starred in the bio musical Stormy Weather. There will be Jerry Herman songs, reflecting her time with Jerry’s Girls on Broadway. And she’ll sing the cockeyed rendition of “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over” that made her a YouTube sensation when she fitted nonsense syl-

lables onto the melody after the cuecard man fell during a live outdoor broadcast. “I amaze myself,” she said about memorizing the random sounds she had once improvised. Just before heading off to star in Gypsy, she told audiences at 54 Below that she was about to be “the first chocolate brownie that’s gonna be Mama Rose.” The musical, about a stage mother railroading her kids into show business, had particular relevance since she saw plenty of young victims during her early years, even if she wasn’t one of them. “I knew that world very well, and it was frightening,” she said. “But I was very fortunate because it was a friend who got the attention of my parents, saying, she has talent, and started taking me off to auditions. I was a ham, I loved to sing, and I enjoyed it very much. I didn’t come from a family that had a lot of money, but I didn’t have parents who depended on me to live. My father brought the money into the house.” Uggams was a regular at the Apollo Theatre by the time she was 9, and found herself embraced by such fellow performers as Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. “To me it was like summer camp,” she said. “I did my little act, came off stage, and went to the dressing room and got out my coloring book.” She gained national fame in the early 60s when Mitch Miller asked her to join the cast of his popular TV show Sing Along with Mitch.

Leslie Uggams made her Apollo Theatre debut at age 9.

Not long after Sing Along ended its run, Uggams met her future husband, Grahame Pratt, while performing in Australia. It also led to an awkward early encounter with Lena Horne that had started on a high note. “Lena pinned me as a Delta in 1965,” Uggams said, referring to the Delta Sigma Theta sorority dedicated to encouraging college education among African-American women. “I was engaged to marry my husband, and my mother and I were at the Delta luncheon, and Lena turned to my mother and said, ‘Don’t let her marry him.’ And I was shocked. ‘Oh my God, what does she mean? How can she say that? I’m so in love.’” It was a few years before Uggams figured out that Horne was unhappy in her interracial marriage to

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Sasha Waltz

From page 21

I haven’t heard the sonatas yet, but Waltz and her dancers have set a very high standard of musicianship for anyone to match. The composition, simply called Impromptus, used the postmodern American style, which is developed on intimacy, improvisation, mutual respect, and absence of rhetorical imposture, to create an accompaniment for the music in a spirit of high friendship, tenderness, respect, and lightness of grasp – with full acknowledgment of the Gothic outcroppings that burst through Schubert’s heavenly melodies when you’d least expect them. Indeed, the dancing started before the music, with a man (Juan Kruz Díaz de Garaio Esnaola) who began to lurch as if he’d been hit with the excrucio curse – the back of his neck seized up, his shoulders went tense, he went through many contortions just this side of falling over backwards, in silence for almost a minute, before a Doppelganger (Xuan Shi) appeared on the other side of the stage and had something similarly hostile take possession of his sinews and remove all grace from his aspect. When the Impromptu in F minor finally began, it was as if Orpheus were playing, and a softness began to infuse the frozen limbs of the men and soothe their wretchedness. Not that Schubert is invariably soothing – sometimes the intimacy he creates comes through shared pain. The German for this is “Innigstes Beileid”; in English, it’s “I understand.” It’s his practice to take a melody and pull it out, varying it harmonically, changing its emotional color by adding dissonances and chromatic distortions that some-

Courtesy Sony Music

Leslie Uggams won a Tony Award for her Broadway debut in Hallelujah, Baby!

Hollywood conductor and arranger Lenny Hayton, and was trying to steer Uggams away from the same path. “It was also the time Lena was very involved with civil rights, and she was going around talking to women in the South, so there was a lot going on that as a young lady I didn’t know. Of course, this week my husband and I will be celebrating 49 years of marriage.” Uggams has numerous “first African-American woman to –” credits in her biography. “I’m kind of proud of that because I’m breaking barriers,” she said, “but at the same time when it comes time for people to come see what I’m doing, I better be doing what

I’m supposed to be doing.” Horne’s trademark song “Stormy Weather” is part of the Classic Uggams song list. Asked what she would choose for her own title song, Uggams took a pause before suggesting “Being Good” from the Hallelujah, Baby! score. “In the show’s story-line, it’s the fact that the character is black and she has to be better than good,” she said, “but for me it’s, like, don’t settle for mediocre. And I never have.”t

times ravish you, and sometimes leave you desolate, but leave you feeling like you’ve shared something important. He sustains the melody, sometimes obsessively, but keeps changing the emotional weather, with genius timing so no mood lasts beyond your power to endure it. He is the master of shades of pain: wistful, melancholy, poignant, hopingagainst-hope, wrenching, violent, heartbreaking, despairing, devastating. And there is a huge range of joys as well, all the way to rapture, flying high – but in the Impromptus, never for long. It’s important to remember the new reign of terror that hit Schubert and his friends when they were young. He was a teenager when Napoleon fell, and the restored monarchies moved quickly to stamp out liberal sympathies. The secret police arrested him and his friends in his early 20s; one of them was locked away for a year. He has something in common with Shostakovich. Unlike Beethoven, he could not proclaim that “Alle Menschen werden Bruder.” It had become suddenly dangerous to share your feelings with anyone but your closest friends. And so Schubert’s music is characterized by its intimacy, friendship, and outbursts of terror. He explored Innigkeit, and it’s this inward world that the Waltz ballet opens up. Waltz is herself German; she’s now a big force in Berlin. But she’s very influenced by the American postmodernists of the 1960s. The German in her can hear harbingers of Expressionism in Schubert’s music, and the irony that in the heart of the nightingale’s song lies a bitter, wrenching pain. But as a dancer Waltz is following Steve Paxton, the inventor of contact improvisation, which was the dance equivalent of the Free

Speech Movement. For her dancers, their first partner is the floor. The music is a major influence, but not the reason they’re moving. The dancers appear on a stage that’s torn into ledges, as if an earthquake had disrupted a wafer of rock. In the midst of darkness, two ledges veer towards us, with a rift between them that, to cross, the dancers must leap up or hop down. At the back a golden parallelogram abuts the ledge, sticking up like the back of a chair. Nine episodes take place on and around these ledges. The loveliest was one in which the dancers merely ran around like modern dancers, frolicking; a Feiffer-ish “dance like the wind.” Perhaps the most alarming one came when the vertical parallelogram suddenly came unfixed and began swinging – it put me in mind of a guillotine. I think someone was singing. Though the dance images were very strong, the non-sequiturs were so powerful that it’s almost impossible to remember what came before what. Waltz’s choreography was at its finest in the duets, downright wizardly. The way the dancers work with each other is magically intimate. For example, the Doppelganger pair finally came together, and Xuan Shi, who was almost nude, managed to log-roll up the other’s body. You could never see how he took his grip, where were the hand-holds, but suddenly he’d rolled all the way up, he was on the other guy’s shoulders, and you couldn’t see how it happened, who’d done the work. The last Impromptu, in C minor, ended with a couple backing away from each other in slow motion, as darkness gathered, infinitely regressing, an image that will haunt me till the day I die.t

Leslie Uggams will perform Classic Uggams at 5 p.m. Nov. 2 in the Fairmont Hotel’s Venetian Room. Tickets ($45-$50): Call 3924400 or go to bayareacabaret.org.

Books>>

October 30-November 5, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 31

Paternity tests PAX VAPORIZERS E-Cigarettes Whip-its CIGARs HAND-BLOWN GLASS PIPES LIQUID AROMA

The

by Brian Bromberger Not My Father’s Son: A Memoir by Alan Cumming (Dey Street, $26.99) n 1992, Queen Elizabeth gave a famous speech marking the 40th anniversary of her accession to the British throne in which she described the past year being an annus horribilis, a horrible year, mainly due to the romantic disasters of her children and a fire at Windsor Castle that caused serious damage. In his new memoir, Scottish actor Alan Cumming describes his annus horribilis, 2010, in which deeply buried family secrets were revealed as a result of his participation in the popular UK celebrity genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? Cumming had agreed to appear hoping the producers would solve a family mystery involving his maternal grandfather, Tommy Darling, a celebrated WWII hero who did not return home after the war, but instead became a policeman in Malaysia, dying under mysterious circumstances, an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound, in 1951. These revelations were compounded by the announcement of his father, dying of cancer, that Alan was not his son, but the result of an extramarital affair between Alan’s mother and another man. Among his many thespian accomplishments, Cumming is the host of PBS’ Masterpiece Mystery series, and his book reads like a detective novel as he attempts to fill in the gaps in both his family’s history and his own painful childhood. This is no typical showbiz autobiography. Nor does it focus on how Cumming became an actor, his career, or development since childhood. Rather, the book alternates between the life-altering events of 2010 (Now) with chapters from his youth growing up in Angus Scotland on a vast country estate where his father was head forester (Then). His probably mentally-ill father emotionally and physically abused Alan and his older brother Tom. The memoir is Alan’s attempt to exorcise his demons and make peace with his past. His father is a paranoid bully and monster. The chapters detailing incidents of his humiliating and violent cruelty to Alan are harrowing reading, particularly one instance where his father cuts his hair with a rusty pair of

sheep clippers while screaming what a useless boy he is. His father was also a serial philanderer, flaunting his womanizing, taking Alan along on dates to act as a cover. Alan was terrified of his father’s outbreaks of violence, with beatings causing pain and physical injury. Later his father excuses his abuse because Alan was not really his biological son, saying, “You should have known, since we never bonded.” Cumming wants to find out whether his father was telling the truth, so he and Tom take a DNA test together to prove or disprove paternity, the result of which provides the key drama to this story. The book is riveting as Cumming absorbs new revelations. But the chapters detailing his grandfather’s life are not as compelling as those centered on his father, so the book can seem fragmentary. Alan, who describes himself as a “Scottish elf trapped inside a middle-aged man’s body,” is as emotionally honest as the characters he portrays, and he shows no self-pity. Although the book is a heavy read, Cumming’s puckish optimism pervades throughout, and to his credit, he tries to empathize with his emotional terrorist father. One has the sense that it is Alan’s acting that helped him survive, although this connection with the healing power of creativity is only implied. Also, although Alan identifies as bisexual, there is no mention of how his sexuality may have been a factor in his abuse. But there is a terrific chapter on his musings about playing a transvestite in a British TV show, The Runaway. Apparently he has a supportive relationship with his husband Grant, though there are few details on its origin or development, as well as silence about his earlier romances with women and men (such as actress Saffron Burrows and director Nick Philippou). These are minor criticisms, as Cumming is a talented writer with a poetic bent. With Not My Father’s Son, he can add proficient author to his long list of artistic achievements.t As part of the City Arts & Lectures Series, Alan Cumming will be in conversation with author Armistead Maupin at the Nourse Theatre on Mon., Nov. 3, at 7:30 p.m. Go to cityarts.net.

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