December 22, 2016 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

The 500th Jock Talk

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ARTS

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Gertrude & Alice forever

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Holiday Events

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Vol. 46 • No. 51 • December 22-28, 2016

Lee names LA cop as new SF police chief

by Seth Hemmelgarn

Joseph leaves entertainment commission

by Seth Hemmelgarn

L

ongtime nightlife figure Audrey Joseph has stepped down from the San Francisco Entertainment Commission, the oversight body for the permitting of bars and nightclubs and other issues.

“I’ve been on the entertainment commission since its inception in July 2003, and it’s just time to relinquish my seat to somebody else,” said Joseph, a lesbian who currently serves as the panel’s vice president. Her term was set to expire in July 2019. “Fresh blood is always good. It’s just time, and I want to spend most of my time concentrating on the venue that I am developing right now.”

That current project is the drill court at the Armory, the historic, castle-like building at 1800 Mission Street that’s owned by the Kink.com porn company. Joseph, who works as the Armory’s events director, said she’s transforming the drill court into “what I hope will be the premiere entertainment venue in San Francisco.”

Her last day on the commission was Tuesday, December 20. The panel marked the occasion with a holiday get-together that doubled as Joseph’s retirement party.

Joseph said she was “grateful” to serve on the panel and to have had the support of Mayor Ed Lee, as well as former Mayors Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom.

“We did some amazing things,” she said of her work with fellow commissioners. “We passed legislation to help protect entertainment and create legitimate entertainment spaces, and we solidified regulations. Entertainment is markedly more safe and more fun these days than it was back when we started.

We helped entertainment through the recession of 2008. I’m very proud of all the work I did, and extremely proud of Jocelyn Kane,” the commission’s executive director.

In an email to the Bay Area Reporter, Kane said, “For the last 13 years as a member of the See page 15 >>

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See page 10 >>

Mayor Ed Lee enters a news conference Tuesday, December 20 to announce the appointment of William “Bill” Scott, right, as San Francisco’s new police chief.

Rick Gerharter

Rick Gerharter

Audrey Joseph, left, gets an embrace from Jocelyn Kane, executive director of the San Francisco Entertainment Commission, at a party celebrating Joseph’s long tenure and retirement as an entertainment commissioner.

ayor Ed Lee has appointed Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief William “Bill” Scott to take over the San Francisco Police Department as it struggles with issues involving racism, homophobia, use of force, and other problems.

Scott, 52, who’s African-American, replaces Interim Chief Toney Chaplin, who took over the department in May after ex-Police Chief Greg Suhr resigned.

Many had called for Lee to fire Suhr after several controversial incidents, including fatal police shootings of people of color and a scandal in which numerous officers were accused of exchanging racist and homophobic text messages.

Recent reports by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services branch and the Blue Ribbon Panel on Transparency, Accountability and Fairness in Law Enforcement, launched by District Attorney George Gascón, pointed to problems with the SFPD’s use of force policies, among other issues.

Ghost Ship attorneys deflect blame

by Seth Hemmelgarn

T

he attorneys for the master tenant of Oakland’s Ghost Ship warehouse are seeking to deflect blame for the fire there that killed 36 people by lashing out at local officials.

In a statement released Monday, December 19, Jeffrey Krasnoff, Kyndra Miller, and Tony Serra said, “Our investigation shows that Derick Almena committed no conduct amounting to criminal negligence. He should not be made a scapegoat.”

No charges have been filed related to the fire, which killed at least three transgender people.

The attorneys stated that Alameda County law enforcement officials, including the district attorney’s office “have a conflict in interest” in investigating the fire.

“Undoubtedly, there will be a civil case by decedents’ representatives who will sue for millions upon millions of dollars,” the legal trio said, and the sheriff ’s office, fire department, building inspectors, and others could potentially be defendants.

“All of them have repeatedly visited the premises without doing anything. The local fire department has even had a musical event there themselves,” the statement says.“Civil lawyers look for ‘deep pocket’ defendants in such a case.

Here, the only ‘deep pockets’ are those of Alameda County and the property owners.”

Almena’s attorneys fear that the county could bring “improper charges” against him and others “in order to divert attention away from their own irresponsible agencies.”

Michael Nugent

Flowers and memorials sit outside the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland, which was photographed two weeks after a fire killed 36 people.

They said that if they need to, they’ll defend Almena “vigorously by showing that the real culprits are the above agencies who didn’t do their jobs.”

Officials didn’t seem worried by the attorneys’ statement about Almena, who said in a Facebook post just after the fire, “Everything I worked so hard for is gone,” without mentioning the lives lost.

Sergeant J.D. Nelson, a sheriff’s department spokesman, said, “Other than recovering 36 bodies” from the warehouse at 1315 31st Avenue, the sole contact his agency had with the property “was the time we arrested Mr. Almena for being in a stolen trailer” at the front of the site. Nelson didn’t know when the arrest had been.

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In an email, DA’s spokeswoman Teresa Drenick said that her office “is in the midst of a thorough, professional, and careful investigation” related to the December 2 fire, “and it would not be proper for us to comment further at this point in time.”

According to media reports, officials have determined arson wasn’t the cause of the threealarm fire and instead suspect that the blaze was the result of an overloaded electrical system. The Bay Area Reporter’s calls to the Oakland office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Alameda County Fire Department weren’t returned Tuesday.

Several people had been living in the Fruitvale district building, which wasn’t zoned for residential use, and an electronic music concert had just started there when the fire broke out.

After the B.A.R. tried to contact interim Planning and Building Director Darin Ranelletti Tuesday, city spokeswoman Karen Boyd said in an email, “Investigations into the tragic fire on 31st Avenue are ongoing. It is premature to draw any conclusions about responsibility for this deadly tragedy until those investigations are completed.”

Many have raised questions about the safety of the building, which was leased by Almena and reportedly was crammed with pianos, rugs, artwork, and other objects, and had no sprinklers, and limited exits. It doesn’t appear city agencies had done much to address the hazards.

See page 15 >>

What is TRUVADA for PrEP (Pre-exposure Prophylaxis)?

TRUVADA is a prescription medicine that can be used for PrEP to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection when used together with safer sex practices. This use is only for adults who are at high risk of getting HIV-1 through sex. This includes HIV-negative men who have sex with men and who are at high risk of getting infected with HIV-1 through sex, and male-female sex partners when one partner has HIV-1 infection and the other does not.

Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to prevent getting HIV-1. Always practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance of sexual contact with body fluids.

Never reuse or share needles or other items that have body fluids on them.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information I should know about TRUVADA for PrEP? Before taking TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce your risk of getting HIV-1 infection: u You must be HIV-negative. You must get tested to make sure that you do not already have HIV-1 infection. Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 unless you are confirmed to be HIV-negative. u Many HIV-1 tests can miss HIV-1 infection in a person who has recently become infected. If you have flu-like symptoms, you could have recently become infected with HIV-1. Tell your healthcare provider if you had a flu-like illness within the last month before starting TRUVADA for PrEP or at any time while taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Symptoms of new HIV-1 infection include tiredness, fever, joint or muscle aches, headache, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, night sweats, and/or enlarged lymph nodes in the neck or groin.

While taking TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce your risk of getting HIV-1 infection: u You must continue using safer sex practices. Just taking TRUVADA for PrEP may not keep you from getting HIV-1. u You must stay HIV-negative to keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP. u To further help reduce your risk of getting HIV-1: • Know your HIV-1 status and the HIV-1 status of your partners.

• Get tested for HIV-1 at least every 3 months or when your healthcare provider tells you.

• Get tested for other sexually transmitted infections.

Other infections make it easier for HIV-1 to infect you.

• Get information and support to help reduce risky sexual behavior.

• Have fewer sex partners.

• Do not miss any doses of TRUVADA. Missing doses may increase your risk of getting HIV-1 infection.

• If you think you were exposed to HIV-1, tell your healthcare provider right away. u If you do become HIV-1 positive, you need more medicine than TRUVADA alone to treat HIV-1. TRUVADA by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time.

TRUVADA can cause serious side effects: u Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency. Symptoms of lactic acidosis include weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, nausea, vomiting, stomach-area pain, cold or blue hands and feet, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or fast or abnormal heartbeats. u Serious liver problems. Your liver may become large and tender, and you may develop fat in your liver. Symptoms of liver problems include your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, and/or stomach-area pain.

u You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver

problems if you are female, very overweight (obese), or have been taking TRUVADA for a long time. In some cases, these serious conditions have led to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any symptoms of these conditions. u Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. If you also have HBV and take TRUVADA, your hepatitis may become worse if you stop taking TRUVADA. Do not stop taking TRUVADA without first talking to your healthcare provider. If your healthcare provider tells you to stop taking TRUVADA, they will need to watch you closely for several months to monitor your health.

TRUVADA is not approved for the treatment of HBV.

Who should not take TRUVADA for PrEP? Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP if you already have HIV-1 infection or if you do not know your HIV-1 status. If you are HIV-1 positive, you need to take other medicines with TRUVADA to treat HIV-1. TRUVADA by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time.

Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP if you also take lamivudine (Epivir-HBV) or adefovir (HEPSERA).

What are the other possible side effects of TRUVADA for PrEP? Serious side effects of TRUVADA may also include: u Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider may do blood tests to check your kidneys before and during treatment with TRUVADA for PrEP. If you develop kidney problems, your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking TRUVADA for PrEP. u Bone problems, including bone pain or bones getting soft or thin, may lead to fractures. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your bones. u Changes in body fat, which can happen in people taking TRUVADA or medicines like TRUVADA. Common side effects in people taking TRUVADA for PrEP are stomach-area (abdomen) pain, headache, and decreased weight.

Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or do not go away.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking TRUVADA for PrEP? u All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare

provider if you have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection. u If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if TRUVADA can harm your unborn baby. If you become pregnant while taking TRUVADA for PrEP, talk to your healthcare provider to decide if you should keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Pregnancy Registry: A pregnancy registry collects information about your health and the health of your baby. There is a pregnancy registry for women who take medicines to prevent HIV-1 during pregnancy. For more information about the registry and how it works, talk to your healthcare provider. u If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. The medicines in TRUVADA can pass to your baby in breast milk. If you become HIV-1 positive, HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk. u All the medicines you take, including prescription and overthe-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements.

TRUVADA may interact with other medicines. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine. u If you take certain other medicines with TRUVADA for PrEP, your healthcare provider may need to check you more often or change your dose. These medicines include ledipasvir with sofosbuvir (HARVONI).

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see Important Facts about TRUVADA for PrEP including important warnings on the following page.

Have you heard about

TRUVADA for PrEP ?

TM

The once-daily prescription medicine that can help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 when used with safer sex practices.

• TRUVADA for PrEP is only for adults who are at high risk of getting HIV through sex.

• You must be HIV-negative before you start taking TRUVADA. Ask your doctor about your risk of getting HIV-1 infection and if TRUVADA for PrEP may be right for you.

visit start.truvada.com

t

Community News>>

December 22-28, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Supporters urge Obama to commute Manning’s sentence risk and you can save her.”

Nairne noted that the birthday events have been going on for a few years.

“Queer Strike first put this event together the year after Chelsea Manning wasn’t selected as grand marshal for Pride,” said Nairne, referring to the dust up in 2013 when the board that oversees San Francisco Pride first named Manning a community grand marshal and then rescinded the honor.

“What she did heightened the actions of international grassroots movements in many countries,” Nairne said.

Michael Nugent “But LGBT groups were slow to respond. We initially tried Supporters of Chelsea Manning gathered in Oakland last weekend to unsuccessfully to get big LGBT celebrate her 29th birthday and urge President Barack Obama to commute her sentence. organizations to join her support network.”

Manning was selected as an Trump is unlikely to take such acby Michael Nugent honorary grand marshal in tion, and they’re hoping Obama 2014, with Daniel Ellsberg, famous ime is running out for President will do so before he leaves office for leaking the Pentagon Papers, fillBarack Obama to act on a penext month. ing in for her in the Pride parade. tition to commute the sentence of The petition does not ask Obama Shakeups in the Pride board comconvicted whistleblower Chelsea to pardon Manning. position and a new executive direcManning. Her supporters gathered The Chelsea Manning Support tor also took place. in the East Bay last weekend to celNetwork, Queer Strike, and Pay Day The support network is now in ebrate her birthday and to publicize Men’s Network organized a series of transition, with a new organization their request. birthday parties in cities around the coming in February that will be diManning, 29, was convicted world last weekend. In Oakland, the rectly under Manning’s leadership. under the Espionage Act for regroup met Saturday, December 17 Queer Strike has been a part of the leasing classified documents to at Omni Commons in the Temescal support network and is ready to act WikiLeaks while working as an neighborhood. to support Manning however she Army intelligence analyst in Iraq.

“It’s a time of year to remember would like.

After her court-martial in 2013, she Chelsea Manning and send her “Whenever there’s been a call announced that she is a transgender cards and other signs of support,” from the support network we woman. said Lori Nairne, a lesbian who ormobilize and let everyone know She was sentenced to 35 years in ganizes with Queer Strike. what’s going on. Chelsea won the prison at Ft. Leavenworth, a men’s According to the petition, Manright to have gender reassignment facility in Kansas. ning has already served more time surgery, but it will only be impleManning’s supporters posted a in prison “than any individual in mented with sustained pressure,” petition through the White House’s United States history who disclosed said Nairne.

“We the People” program on www. information in the public interest.”

Manning’s five-day hunger strike whitehouse.gov last month and “Her disclosures harmed no one,” in September convinced the Army quickly surpassed the minimum the petition states. to allow her the surgery. It was 100,000 signatures to necessitate a The petition also discusses Manseen as a watershed moment for response. So far, the White House ning’s life in prison, noting that she transgender prisoners across the has not commented. has attempted to kill herself. country.

Obama issued commutations “Chelsea is a woman in a men’s Manning’s two suicide attempts Monday, December 19 for 153 peofacility facing ongoing mistreathave complicated her legal team’s ple who have committed federal ment,” the petition to the president efforts. The act of attempting suicrimes, but Manning’s name was states. “She has attempted suicide cide will result in new charges, not among them. Her supporters and has been punished with addiaccording to the American Civil say that the incoming administrational time in solitary confinement Liberties Union, which is part of tion of President-elect Donald for her desperation. Her life is at her legal team. This could include

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While the government recognizes Manning is a transgender woman, she is still required to adhere to the grooming standards of the men’s military prison, which include hair length.

“She has repeatedly been punished for trying to survive and now is being repeatedly punished for trying to die,” Chase Strangio, one of her lawyers with the ACLU, wrote in an email to the Associated Press last month, after news reports emerged of Manning’s second suicide attempt.t

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Moujaes also criticized the jury selection.

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<< Open Forum

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 22-28, 2016

Volume 46, Number 51 December 22-28, 2016, 2016 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Richard Dodds • Michael Flanagan Jim Gladstone • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel • Khaled Sayed Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Sari Staver • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Jo-Lynn Otto • Rich Stadtmiller Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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Don’t fall for flawed Calexit plan M

any Californians are despondent and bitter over the result of the presidential election. This week, the Electoral College met in all 50 states (and the District of Columbia) and cast more than 270 electoral votes for President-elect Donald Trump. But none came from the Golden State, which Hillary Clinton won by 30 points – 61.5 percent to Trump’s 31.5 percent; on Monday, all of the state’s 55 electors voted for her.

Since the election, Democrats and others opposed to Trump have held protests, meetings, and strategy sessions to fashion responses to what is shaping up to be a very anti-California administration.

In addition to his pledge to deport undocumented immigrants, Trump and the Republicans in Congress are moving ahead with their vow to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and possibly undo advances in fighting climate change. Given the anti-LGBT tendencies of the incoming administration, on a national level we expect to see progress for trans students reversed and benefits for federal LGBT workers curtailed. We’re fortunate that California has some of the strongest LGBT laws on the books, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be immune from attempts to eliminate the gains we’ve achieved toward equality.

Resistance to the rightward shift in the country must be methodical and well-planned. We shouldn’t fall for easy, knee-jerk reactions like the flawed and dangerous plan for California to secede from the United States. Dubbed Calexit, on paper the plan sounds intriguing, but KQED’s California Report dug deeper last week and what it found was troublesome. For starters, the man behind Calexit does not live in the state, but on the outskirts of Siberia. Louis Marinelli heads the secessionist group Yes California and is a former right-wing activist from Buffalo, New York. He moved to Russia almost

a decade ago. He then returned to the U.S. to campaign against LGBTQ rights with the homophobic National Organization for Marriage before returning to Russia.

Given that U.S. intelligence services and President Barack Obama have confirmed Russia’s meddling in this year’s presidential election – with the knowledge of top officials, possibly including President Vladimir Putin – the last thing California needs is a secessionist movement rooted in that country.

Putin is also virulently anti-gay, and had rammed through his country’s anti-LGBT propaganda law several years ago. Marinelli’s movement, KQED reported, “was covered almost exclusively in outlets funded by the Russian government and Communist Party, before picking up more mainstream attention in the past few months.”

“The ascendancy of his secessionist organization says just as much about the state of media as it does about the Russian government’s ability to sway U.S. public opinion,” the station reported.

Marinelli’s Calexit plan has been brewing for awhile, but after Trump’s stunning victory, it picked up renewed interest because several influential tech figures took to Twitter to “voice their desire for California to leave the union,” reported KQED. “Among them was Shervin Pishevar, an investor and co-founder of Hyperloop One, a startup promoting a futuristic new transportation technology.”

There’s a distinct disinformation war spreading here. When searching for terms like “California sovereignty” or “Calexit,” one finds Russian “news” coverage of Marinelli’s fringe movement. There have long been fringe secessionist movements here; one, advocating the state of Jefferson, is based in northern California. But these campaigns are run by people out

of the mainstream who advocate plans that are unrealistic. With the election of Trump, those movements are given new life by people who fall victim to their propaganda.

What Trump and many of his appointees fail to realize is just how dangerous Russia is.

Trump thinks he has a buddy in Putin, when in reality the Russian president is using Trump’s bellicose comments to further his country’s interests at the expense of American ones. Putin would like nothing better than for the U.S. to abandon Syria, for example, and with Trump in charge, that might just happen. Russia’s cyberattacks on the Democratic Party, the Clinton campaign, and the U.S. government are just the latest examples of serious attempts to undermine the U.S. And California isn’t the only state that has the eye of the Kremlin. According to KQED’s report, “Russia supports other secessionist efforts in the U.S., including the Free Vermont movement and the ‘Texit’ movement in Texas.”

(With Trump in office, Texans are less eager to entertain calls to leave the U.S., which is another possible reason secession advocates have turned their attention to California.) The leader of the Texas effort told the station that his group received a small grant from the Russian government. So the connections are in plain view for anyone who wants to see.

California is expected to challenge the Trump administration in a variety of areas, from climate change to immigration to health care. Governor Jerry Brown told a group of geophysicists meeting in San Francisco last week that the state will send its “own damn satellite” into space if Trump, who believes climate change is a hoax perpetrated by China, turns off NASA satellites researching climate change. What the state doesn’t need is to become mired in a discussion about leaving the union, especially a plan spearheaded by an anti-gay man that has support in the Kremlin.t

This revolution will not be televised

by Charlie Spiegel

“T

he Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” the title and refrain written by Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, is far better known than its last line: “[t]he Revolution will be live.”

In fact, 1970 was also the year I finished elementary school knowing I was different and “wrong,” without knowing how and why.

The leaders in the revolution to overcome Trump and Trumpism won’t be as old as me, you will be young, a thought first from my brother in the days after this 2016 election. Our generation, with many others, brought LGBTQ rights from Harvey Milk to marriage equality, yet likely does not have the ingenuity (never mind energy!) to lead the fight to overcome this defeat. But I am sure another younger generation does. What’s then an older person to do?

Milk and Martin Luther King Jr. each gave us thoughts on how we can mentor and support, and inspire this next generation, which I remembered at the first post-election Friday night service at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav.

The regular weekly service was expanded to include small groups talking about the election, and I was paired with a 20-something man, who said he didn’t have any hope. My immediate response, which I stick to even today: my generation can afford not to have hope, but your generation can’t afford not to. “... [T]he young gay people in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and the Richmond, Minnesotas, who are coming out and hear Anita Bryant on television and her story. The only thing they have to look forward to is hope. And you have to give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to come to if the pressures at home are too great.

Hope that all will be all right. Without hope, not only are the gays, but the blacks, the seniors, the handicapped, the ‘us-es.’ The ‘us-es’ will give up. ... And you and you and you – you have to give people hope.” – Supervisor Harvey Milk, June 24, 1977, San Francisco.

In 1977, after my first mostly unhappy year, I left college without knowing the cause, but knowing I could no longer only

fantasize for the high school then college lacrosse (swimming, track, etc.) team. Away, I found real flesh and blood gay men.

On November 18, 1978, nine days before his death, Milk predicted “... I cannot prevent some people from feeling angry and frustrated and mad in response to my death, but I hope they will take the frustration and madness and instead of demonstrating or anything of that type, I would hope that they would take the power and I would hope that five, ten, one hundred, a thousand would rise. I would like to see every gay lawyer, every gay architect come out, stand up, and let the world know. That would do more to end prejudice overnight than anybody could imagine. I urge them to do that, urge them to come out. Only that way will we start to achieve our rights. ... All I ask is for the movement to continue, and if a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door ...”

In the fall of 1978, I came out to my parents in an Arby’s, not as gay but as president of the LGBTQ (for questioning) Student Alliance, and proceeded to be part of a generation who took the power Milk spoke of, whether as a “gay lawyer” (like me), or any other occupation or position. And of course, we demonstrated, over and over again.

At the same post-Trump election service at my synagogue, the other words that moved me most I remembered from King, himself, of course, a Baptist minister. “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over.

And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!” – Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., August 28, 1963, Washington, D.C. I realized then, for me, President Barack Obama took us up to that mountaintop, and showed us the land beyond, we just thought we were already there. He is not guiding us the whole way there, and we now know it will be a much, much harder trip, but he has given us a vision of hope for what it will be like to get there, which we owe to share our confidence about with another generation.

In 1963, I was 5 years old, about to start kindergarten, carried on my father’s shoulders to see the Lincoln Memorial and King better, nearby the place where the Women’s March on Washington/Day of Justice will take place on Saturday January 21. Rather than attending the march herself, San Francisco lawyer Deborah Wald decided to raise funds to send a group of young women of color instead. She has partnered with Peer Resources, a group providing youth leadership development within San Francisco’s public high schools, and together they will be sending 16 young women of color and three chaperones to Washington. Costs are estimated at $1,500 per student, and any tax-deductible contributions are appreciated and payable to “CI/Peer Resources” (www.peerresources.org).

For me, I’ve had the honor to share these thoughts with a group of 40 20-something people (as part of Keshet at a Moishe House in San Francisco). I’m supporting a young transgender man and speaking out about trans rights – from my relatively secure position as a gay man – where trans people may now be rightly more afraid. I’m encouraging tax-deductible contributions before year end for national LGBT legal groups and for Our Family Coalition (www.ourfamily.org).

It’s now being run by the young firebrand, interim Executive Director Renata MoreiraBilella, who fits the bill of a new generation of leadership.

The week of Monday, January 16 is the holiday dedicated to King and it will have particular meaning: King’s legacy will be celebrated on the first day of the last week of our first African-American president’s term in office. Let’s mark our calendars to come out as everything we are, and be out those ways that day and after. Let’s celebrate both of their legacies, and our progress as a generation and a nation, with our President Obama, how far we must go and smile at least just a little about these journeys and fights. Look out for your own mentees and whether you can be one to supply some of the support they want, or need.t Charlie Spiegel, Esq., is an attorney who lives in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.charlesspiegellaw.com.

t

Letters >>

Things I’m wondering about

December 22-28, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

As 2016 is winding down I am in a reflective mood and, while I don’t have all (or any!) of the answers, this is what I’m wondering about.

The first one is obvious to a lot of us: why was Donald Trump elected?

But also, why do the young kids bumming money on the streets in the Castro and Haight have better phones than I do?

Why do people complain about the Google buses blocking Muni loading zones but no one says a word about Uber/Lyft cars doing the same thing?

Why are the homeless encampments/ tent cities always in poor/working class neighborhoods and never in Pacific Heights or Nob Hill?

Why do I buy a monthly Muni pass when I see hundreds of people (weekly) not pay to ride Muni?

What happened to the once great Forty Niners?

Why do people litter when there is some kind of trashcan on every block?

Why is it that the people that complain the loudest that San Francisco is not cool and freaky and weird anymore are never the ones that are cool, freaky, and weird? Are they just there to watch the parade but never join in?

Why can’t more people be as giving of their time and talent as Donna Sachet?

And finally, why can’t I fit into my size 33 jeans anymore?

San Francisco, I love you more than ever.

We’re not perfect but we’re more than halfway there.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

And don’t forget to tip your bartender.

Joe Mac San Francisco

Long list of issues awaits next District 8 supervisor

by Matthew S. Bajko

M

yriad issues, from intractable concerns like housing and homelessness to protecting LGBT history and businesses, will await the next District 8 supervisor.

As of the Bay Area Reporter’s deadline Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Ed Lee had yet to name a person to fill the seat, long considered the LGBT community’s on the Board of Supervisors. It was vacated earlier this month by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), as he defeated his former board colleague, District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, in the November election to succeed termed-out gay state Senator Mark Leno.

The mayor’s office is said to be seriously considering three gay men for the District 8 seat: community college board member Alex Randolph; former San Francisco AIDS Foundation senior vice president James Loduca; and Conor Johnston, chief of staff to board President London Breed.

All would be expected to align with the board’s moderates to give them a 6-5 majority next year.

There is also a push from those within the city’s LGBT AsianAmerican community for Lee to name to the seat his gay deputy chief of staff Francis Tsang, who had been his spokesman and now handles commission appointments. There are currently no LGBT Asian-Americans in elected office in the city and there has never been an out Asian-American supervisor.

No matter when Lee names his pick, the person will likely be sworn in Sunday, January 8 at 2 p.m. with the winners of this year’s odd-numbered supervisor races. Doing so would allow the person to serve out the remaining two years of Wiener’s term and still be eligible to run for two full, four-year terms.

With the departure of the board’s only current LGBT member, gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos, who is termed out of office in early January, the incoming District 8 supervisor, should he or she be gay as expected, will play an instrumental role in ensuring the needs of the city’s LGBT community are heard and addressed at City Hall.

And protecting AIDS programs and other LGBT health initiatives from a homophobic Donald Trump administration could give the new District 8 supervisor a national platform.

Wiener and Campos were vocal supporters of various LGBT issues and groups during their time on the board, from securing emergency funding for the LGBT Community Center and backfilling federal AIDS

Rick Gerharter

The next District 8 supervisor will have to confront a host of issues affecting the Castro and surrounding neighborhoods.

cuts to investigating the management and finances of the organization that puts on the annual Pride celebration.

Both the local entertainment community and transit advocates around the Bay Area found a champion in Wiener, who urged City Hall to increase funding for the city’s aging Muni system and to enact policies to ensure clubs, outdoor festivals, and nightlife venues could thrive in the city. His successor will likely be asked to continue in that role.

One initiative Wiener pushed this fall was the creation of an LGBT Nightlife Working Group that is tasked with not only supporting entertainment venues but also with pushing forward the creation of an LGBT Cultural Heritage District in the city’s South of Market neighborhood. Seeing that the group is formed and effective will now fall to his successor.

Addressing homelessness, not just citywide but in the gay Castro neighborhood, will also likely take up a large focus of the new District 8 supervisor. More than a third of the city’s homeless individuals identify as LGBT, while 4 in 10 of homeless youth do.

As the B.A.R. reported earlier this month, Wiener helped secure city funding for the now 2-year-old

Facebook

Jason Chan, left, is sworn in as a member of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission by his housemate and mayoral aide, Francis Tsang.

Castro Cares initiative, which aims to connect homeless individuals in the gayborhood to city services. And the city’s transit agency is studying whether to build mixed-use housing on two parking lots it owns in the heart of the Castro, projects that could quickly become flashpoints of contention for the next supervisor.

While homeless advocates attacked him for not doing enough to create more affordable housing units in his district, Wiener did push through zoning changes allowing property owners to build in-law units in an effort to boost housing in the Castro in particular.

He also secured city funds to expand housing for homeless youth in the upper Market Street corridor.

Another area of focus the District 8 supervisor will be asked to provide leadership on concerns LGBT seniors. Wiener authored several pieces of legislation recommended by a special task force created to address the needs of the city’s rapidly aging LGBT population, and more work remains to fully implement the panel’s package of proposals.

“Clearly, anyone who represents District 8 has to be focused on health issues, including HIV, and on the needs of the LGBT community, among other communities of course,” Wiener told the B.A.R. “In terms of the tidal wave expected to come from Washington, there will be significant impacts in terms of access to health care. My successor needs to be very focused on making sure people aren’t falling through the cracks on health care needs.”

Other issues the next District 8 supervisor can expect to handle include police staffing and patrols, off-leash dog access at local and national parks, and gearing up for an election fight to remain in office, as a number of progressive LGBT leaders are already eyeing a run for the seat in 2018.

One thing his successor will not need to worry about, said Wiener, is his meddling in their affairs, except on occasion, as he pledged “to restrain myself ” from weighing in on every local matter.

“One thing I learned from Mark Leno and Bevan Dufty was they were both really, really good on being selective when calling me with feedback,” said Wiener, referring to his two predecessors in the supervisor seat. “I called them for advice. ...

I want to be a resource for my successor and make sure he or she can establish an independent record.”

Gay appointee resigns rec and park seat

Jason Chan, a gay man the mayor appointed to serve on the city’s Recreation and Park Commission, resigned his seat last week under a cloud of suspicion.

See page 9 >>

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<< Commentary

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 22-28, 2016

Deadnames

t

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

O

n December 2, a fire broke out in a warehouse building in Oakland, California. Its tenants knew the building as Ghost Ship, and it housed an artists’ collective.

That’s not uncommon in the Bay Area, where affordable housing is scarce. What’s more, the residents were able to find welcoming, supportive community within the walls of Ghost Ship.

The fire at Ghost Ship ended up being the deadliest fire in Oakland’s Legal representation in employment and history, claiming the lives of 36 insurance disputes. Employment people. Three of those people were representation for wrongful termination trans: Feral Pines, Cash Askew, and and discrimination. Insurance representation Em B. for wrongful denial of insurance claims.

The fire was national news, supplanting the latest tantrums of anaya.legal@gmail.com Edward M. Anaya the president-elect. These reports, while usually fairly sensationalist and often quick to blame Ghost Ship’s victims for their own deaths, didn’t spend a lot of time focusing AnayaLaw_2x2_092916.indd 1 8/31/16 1:11 PM on what the building held prior to becoming Ghost Ship, or dwell on previous tenants of the building.

This is more respect for the identity of a building than the three trans victims of the fire received.

Much of the coverage stripped away the identities of the trans tenants of Ghost Ship. Hard-won names were ignored, and pronouns were incorrectly applied for these three lives.

In a rare turn of events, the Alameda County Sheriff ’s Office, which oversees the coroner’s bureau, when releasing its final list of names via Twitter, clarified the names of Em B and Pines – although the names were still not what their friends knew them as.

Their experience is not an uncommon one when it Includes video camera inspection comes to media coverage of trans lives.

First and foremost, the process of Call us 24/7 updating your identity documents – such as your driver’s license, Social Security card, passport, or birth certificate – remains a burdensome one. Even with some streamlining over the last decade at both the state and federal level, these updates can still require letters from medi® cal professionals, a court-ordered *Up to 100’ with available access point. name change, and other paperwork, May not be combined with other offer. Limited service area. each of which comes at some cost.

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SFPD case

From page 5

if they could empathize with my experience and/or the reality of being misgendered, racially profiled, and then brutalized by the police. The outcome of this case is a reminder that we have a lot to do in order to have a society where all people, including LGBT, black, brown, immigrant, and poor people feel safe.”

According to Moujaes’ lawsuit, Wasserman and Buckner were already pointing their guns at her when they approached her “allegedly” for making an illegal left turn at Mission and 16th streets July 14, 2013.

Moujaes says she complied with their request to show her hands.

When she asked why she’d been stopped, Wasserman “pulled her and threw her to the ground,” dislocating her shoulder.

“Ms. Moujaes did not resist ar-

Christine Smith

a trans identity or assault people in bathrooms such a ridiculous argument. Transgender people have to work very hard to forge their identities in this society. It’s simply not that easy.

Police and rescue personnel may only have the identification papers – such as the driver’s license – of a transgender person and report that name. Or they feel that it is somehow more “accurate” to use a legal or “wallet” name and gender over the ones a person chose, and that which all those knew them as.

This is compounded by the media, which simply use the information it was given, without doing any further due diligence. In some cases, too, it’s not just shoddy reporting or a hamfisted attempt to be “accurate,” but a deliberate stripping away of transgender identities in an attempt to “spice up” a story.

When the former name of a transgender person is used in such a way, we in the community refer to it as “deadnaming.” The term is perhaps a bit overstated, but it is certainly applicable.

I changed my name nearly 25 years ago, and today I have to take a moment to remember what it once was. There is no connection to it, no sense of recognition that one might associate with one’s name.

That said, no one wants to be called something they are not.

Consider what it might feel like, to you, to have a name you do not associate with yourself used as a weapon against you, as a way to delegitimize your very being? That is what it is like to use the deadname

and incorrect gender for a trans person.

Having transitioned so long ago means there is no real record of me with that name or gender to be found on the internet. While I’m sure someone would find it easily enough if they really were determined, it’s not so casually stepped over. I like it that way.

Recently, however, I’ve ended up having to sort through paperwork as I apply for a United States passport prior to Donald Trump taking office. My birth certificate still has that old name on it, and a gender I left behind decades ago. It’s almost foreign to see it and have to present it as proof of my identity, given that it honestly is not my identity. It is, rather, something alien to me.

Yet, I too, must deal with the fact that, no matter how buried my former name may be, no matter how many identity documents I update, no matter what I do, there’s still that chance that someone will try to use an identity I rejected a quartercentury ago. Maybe they’ll be police who are “being accurate,” or maybe it will be journalists who want to tell “my whole story” to the public.

Then again, it could just as well be someone setting out to deliberately harm me.

I’ve said it many times before: when we talk about fighting for our rights, the number one thing we need to fight for is the right to exist.

That’s not just a reference to our staggering homicide rate, but to the very notion of our identities being respected and seen as legitimate.

Let our deadnames rest in peace, and let us live as ourselves.t

rest,” her complaint says. “She was not combative. She did not know why she was stopped; and at no time did officers tell her why she was arrested.” A news release indicated Moujaes, who also goes by the name “Tru Bloo” and often works as a hiphop fusion emcee, wasn’t formally prosecuted in the case.

Along with Wasserman and Buckner, the San Francisco Police Department and the city are also named as defendants, along with Sergeant Flint T. Paul, Officer Brent Dittmer and another officer whose name is listed as “Barry.”

In their motion for summary judgment, defendants said that Moujaes had led police on “a multiple-block slow-speed chase” before she stopped at a red light.

She had also “remained uncooperative” when instructed to turn off her car and get out, and had “turned her body and reached toward the

center console of her car instead of complying” with Wasserman’s commands, leading him to fear that she “may be reaching for a weapon,” the filing says. “He therefore grabbed her left arm and pulled her out of the car,” then handcuffed her.

In court documents, Moujaes says that she’d initially been unsure whether police were trying to pull her over and that she’d been undoing her seatbelt before getting out of the car.

Andrea Guzman, a spokeswoman for the city attorney’s office, said in an email to the B.A.R., “While it is unfortunate Ms. Moujaes was injured, the officers acted appropriately and lawfully given the circumstances. The plaintiff presented no evidence of bias in the part of these officers. We’re glad an impartial jury had the opportunity to hear all the facts and come to the same conclusion.”t

Gwen Smith is what she answers to. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com

t

Community News>>

December 22-28, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Horizons gives $2M in grants to LGBT groups

Rick Gerharter

Horizons Foundation grant recipients are all smiles at a breakfast last week where they were honored.

by David-Elijah Nahmod

T

he Horizons Foundation last week gave out just over $2 million to a variety of LGBT organizations and projects.

Several hundred people gathered inside the top floor events room at the Westin St Francis Hotel for the December 13 breakfast honoring the latest beneficiaries.

This year’s grants, encompassing organizations from across the ninecounty Bay Area region, totaled $2,086,543. Recipients included youth and transgender advocacy

groups, homeless support services, senior services, filmmakers, and arts/performance troupes.

Beneficiaries included Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center, or LYRIC; EnGender, which includes programs like the Bay Area Rainbow Day Camp; and filmmaker Erin Palmquist.

Horizons offers more than just the grants, officials said.

“We offer funds and scholarships for medical school, law school, four year colleges, community colleges, health and human services, human rights, as well as arts and culture,”

said Francisco O. Buchting, Horizons’ vice president of grant, programs, and strategic initiatives.

Buchting added that for 2016, 114 grant applications were received, resulting in 42 funded grants.

“Sometimes it feels like the Bay Area is the experiment for our movement,” he said. “These grants act locally but think globally. We are working very hard to insure that human rights are respected.”

Buchting also noted some other grant beneficiaries, many of whom had sent representatives to attend the breakfast. Organizers from

the Trans March, Bay Area Old Lesbians Organizing for Change, Dyke March, and Trans Lifeline applauded as their organizations were named.

“Support from Horizons has been critical to us as a new organization,” Greta Martela, co-founder of Trans Lifeline, told the Bay Area Reporter. “Horizon’s was the first foundation to fund us and have been instrumental in legitimatizing our approach to trans mental health. We are staffed entirely by trans people for trans people. Our main programming is our crisis line. We are also launching a survey in conjunction with LGBTQ Task Force in 2017.”

LYRIC was the first organization to address the breakfast.

“LYRIC envisions a diverse society where LGBTQQ youth are embraced for who they are and encouraged to be who they want to be,” Executive Director Jodi Schwartz said. “We support all races, classes, genders and abilities.”

Schwartz also said that LYRIC would be launching a fellowship in January.

“It’s a paid two-year position for trans youth of color so they can become leaders in the future and sit with us,” she explained.

Natalia Vigil, communication and development director for LYRIC, spoke personally of what Lyric means to her.

“Leadership opportunities I had as a young person transformed my life,” she said. “They gave me the

confidence to set goals and achieve them, to find value in myself as a young woman of color questioning my sexuality, and to persevere when faced with any form of challenge – adult allies helped me to navigate opportunities and build a network of connections that still serve me to this day. Now I get to be an adult ally to the youth at LYRIC.” Sandra Collins of EnGender spoke of her child, Ezra, who was dressing as a girl at day camp – Ezra is now named Scarlet. “I had to look at my kid for who they are,” Collins said, using gender-neutral pronouns. “These children are perfect just the way they are. Our job is to let them be their best self.”

Palmquist showed a clip from Baghdad to the Bay, her film in progress about a gay Iraqi man’s journey from his homeland to San Francisco.

In the clip Ghazwan Alsharif speaks of his past life in Iraq as a translator for the U.S. Army.

Wrongfully accused of being a double agent, he was tortured by the U.S. and rejected by his family.

Alsharif also spoke of “honor killings” in which Iraqis murder gay family members in order to save face in their communities.t For more information about Horizons, visit www.horizonsfoundation.org.

The Trans Lifeline number is (877) 565-8860 in the U.S.; in Canada it’s (877) 330-6366.

SF Pride taking grand marshal suggestions compiled by Cynthia Laird

Lesbians Who Tech, the organization that holds its San Francisco

summit in February, is now seeking nominees for its first-ever leadership awards, which honor the top LGBTQ and ally leaders of 2016.

Organizers said that they are seeking LGBTQ women and allies who are “doing big things in tech, all while showing up for our community.”

Awards will be given in several categories, including most influential gender non-conforming and out women in tech; out women and gender non-conforming techies to watch; technology and society visionary; LGBTQ and ally diversity game changer; and company diversity game changer.

To learn more and nominate leaders, visit https://docs.google. com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeSTSLDPwa2XxrVsDi_3Eh71qzipE2HU 97xCwavbyzV3o4w/viewform.

The deadline for submissions is December 31. The Lesbians Who Tech and Allies Summit will be held February 24. For more information, visit http://lesbianswhotech.org/ sanfrancisco2017/.

approving a plan to reduce off-leash dog access in three city parks.

His appointment also caught the Board of Supervisors by surprise, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported over the weekend, which prompted it to schedule a hearing at its meeting last Tuesday, December 13 to confirm the pick.

But two days prior Chan informed Lee of his decision to resign, writing in a letter dated December 11 that his travel schedule working as AT&T’s director of external affairs, which requires him to split his time between San Francisco and Washington, D.C., would “make it difficult for me to attend a number of critical upcoming commission meetings.”

Yet his decision apparently was not told to the rec and park commission in time to remove Chan’s name from the agenda for its special joint hearing with the planning commission last Thursday, December 15. Even if he had not resigned and survived the board vote, Chan would not have made the meeting that day as he had flown to the Philippines to be at the bedside of his dying grandfather who raised him and “was like a father” to him, as he noted in a Facebook post.

To some Chan’s appointment to the rec and park commission smacked of cronyism, as he was the political director for Lee’s 2011 mayoral campaign and worked for

T

he San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee is now accepting suggestions for the 2017 community grand marshals.

As in previous years, the community grand marshals are described as “local heroes” and are individuals or organizations currently living or operating primarily in the nine Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. They should have contributed in large part to the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community, or, as openly LGBTQ identified, contributed in large part to society as a whole.

The deadline to submit suggestions is Wednesday, January 11 at 11:59 p.m. PST. According to SF Pride officials, the board will then select a slate of 10 candidates to be voted on by the public. Other community grand marshals are expected to be named by the SF Pride membership and the board.

To make a suggestion, visit https://sfpride.wufoo.com/forms/ wauzphf0wg4cd2/.

For a list of previous community grand marshals (to help avoid du-

<<

Political Notebook

From page 7

News of Chan’s selection for the oversight body, which has not had an LGBT member since 2010, came by way of Facebook posts showing him taking his oath of office at City Hall Wednesday, December 7. Tsang, the mayor’s aide who is a longtime friend and housemate of Chan’s, administered the oath surrounded by other rec and park commissioners and the agency’s general manager, Phil Ginsburg.

Chan did not respond to the B.A.R.’s requests for an interview that day about joining the oversight body, which was a week away from

Bill Wilson

Mia Satya, one of the 2016 community grand marshals, speaks at the Pride media event in June.

plication), visit http://www.sfpride. org/grand-marshals/.

The 2017 Pride parade and festival will be held June 24-25. This year’s theme is “A Celebration of Diversity.” For more information, visit http://www.sfpride.org.

Nominations open for Lesbians Who Tech leadership awards

Queer women of color group seeks film submissions

The Queer Women of Color Film Festival is now accepting films for next year’s event.

In an email, organizers said that films can be in any genre, any subject, and any length. They must also be made by queer women of color, both cis and trans, or by gender variant or transgender people of color of any orientation. Films can be from anywhere in the world.

The deadline is Friday, January 13 by 5 p.m. Pacific time.

Organizers said that they want films “that make us feel the love that connects us during fearful and fearfilled times.”

Next year’s festival will focus on “Beloved Community: Art and Spirit.”

For an online submission form, visit http://www.qwocmap.org/ festival/call-for-films-submission/.

Upcoming JCCSF events

January events at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco include some LGBT content.

him as his director of external affairs between April 2012 and January 2015.

Chan also worked for a time at San Francisco International Airport and served as former mayor Gavin Newsom’s director of commission affairs.

Some within the LGBT Asian-American community had been pushing him as a possible pick for the vacant District 8 supervisor seat.

Asked if the mayor would find another LGBT leader to appoint to the vacant rec and park seat, whose term expires July 24, 2018, Lee’s press office referred the B.A.R. to Tsang, who responded, “Mayor Lee is committed to finding the best candidate to fill this vacancy.”

The last LGBT person to serve on

The talks take place at JCCSF, 3200 California Street.

First up is choreographer Bill T. Jones, a gay man who has inspired a generation of dancers and audiences. In 1982 he co-founded the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company with Zane, his partner. As the company’s artistic director and choreographer, Jones has created more than 140 works, and in 2011, merged his company with New York’s historical Dance Theater Workshop to create New York Live Arts.

Jones will be appearing Sunday, January 22 at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $38.

On Monday, January 30, hear from lesbian businesswoman Amy Errett as she joins other venture capitalists at “Venture Capital 101” at 7 p.m. Errett, formerly CEO of Olivia travel, will be on a panel with David Hornik, general partner at August Capital, and Hunter Walk, formerly with Google and YouTube.

Errett is a former venture capitalist at Maveron Ventures and is currently founder and CEO of Madison Reed, an online hair color company.

Tickets start at $28.

For more information, visit http://www.jccsf.org.t

the body was Mike Sullivan, a gay man and leader of the SF Moderates group, who left the rec and park commission in 2010 after three years.t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion.

This week’s column reported on Mountain View becoming a Human Rights City.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

<< Community News

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 22-28, 2016

t

Gay scientist draws criticism over remarks on trans kids

by Brian Bromberger

A

gay scientist who has long studied brain differences in gay and straight people has drawn criticism from LGBT family groups over comments he made to the Bay Area Reporter about trans kids.

Simon LeVay, Ph.D., first came to public prominence in 1991 when, as a neuroscientist working at the Salk Institute, he published a research paper in Science Journal confirming that the hypothalamus section of the brain was significantly smaller in gay men than in straight men.

He interpreted this finding that “biological processes of brain development may influence a man’s sexual orientation,” becoming one of the first scientific discoveries to support the concept that being gay may be innate.

In 2011 he published his book, Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation, which looked at the scientific evidence that sexual orientation is an aspect of gender that emerges from the prenatal sexual differentiation of the brain. So whether a person winds up gay, straight, or bisexual results primarily from an interaction between genes, sex hormones, and the cells of the developing body and brain.

LeVay, 73, released a second edition of his book earlier this year, adding a chapter on bisexuality, as well as considering whether there could be a biological basis for subtypes of gay people such as femme and butch. LeVay talked by phone to the B.A.R. about this new edition.

It was his comments on gender non-conforming children, however, that drew the most interest. LeVay claims that whether gender-nonconforming children experience any psychological problems is strongly affected by how they are treated.

“I think gay kids are being treated better today and hopefully will not have the traumatic backgrounds we had growing up,” he said. “However, the pendulum may be shifting too much to the other side.

“We may be overly supportive of gender non-conforming kids, thinking they may be transgender so advocating giving them hormones or castrating them at an early age,” LeVay added. “When puberty hits, the vast majority of these kids no longer want to change their sex and instead find they are gay or lesbian. By trying to strengthen our belief they may be transgender before puberty and railroading them into a particular fate, we may be piling on them unnecessary difficulties. We should always love our kids as they are, whatever, but don’t tell them their sexuality is a done deal before puberty.”

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Renata Moreira, interim executive director at Our Family Coalition, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that works with LGBT families, was sent a copy of LeVay’s remarks and asked to comment.

“At a time when fake news and false claims are having damaging national consequences to our children and families, speculation like this is beyond irresponsible,” Moreira said in an email. “Reputable studies and hard facts don’t substantiate Dr. LeVay’s claims.”

She added that some professional organizations have also changed their thinking on trans youth.

“The American Psychological Association recommends supportive and affirming care, period. It’s about harm reduction,” Moreira said. “Hormone blockers Researcher Simon LeVay, Ph.D. are prescribed only after lengthy and careful treatment. They’re restraight, though all are gay-friendly.” versible, and they’re also life-saving.”

He said that conservative RepubShe also said that “there’s no licans resist funding such research epidemic of premature sex reassignso it is hard to get money. ment surgery in youth.”

“It is based on the irrational fear “What does exist and is epiwe are trying to change people’s demic is bullying and aggression sexual orientation or encouraging against trans and gender expansive people to have more sex,” LeVay said. youth,” Moreira explained. “And Identifying gay genes is closer misinformation about them conto being realized by molecular getributes to this.” neticists and brain scientists are starting to map out the neural wirEarly brain research ing underlying sexual attraction in Regarding his early research, general. LeVay largely rejects nurLeVay said that he was surprised by ture or environmental, social, or the media attention he received. cultural factors impacting whether “There were trucks outside the one is attracted to men or women, Salk Institute with press people waitbut “it has a huge influence on ing to interview me,” LeVay said. “My what people do with their sexual motivation wasn’t to prove gay peoorientation and in terms of what ple are born that way, but to know particular person they may be atand understand human nature bettracted to,” LeVay said. ter, asking the question, what makes “People have flexibility in terms us who we are? Since diversity is a of who they have sex with, so huge part of human nature, I wanted straight guys will have sex with men to look at the role of sexual orientain prison, even if they are not attion as part of that, which hadn’t tracted to men,” he noted. been studied as much.”

LeVay gives the example of HarHe said that his updated book ris Wofford, the former senator of strengthens the message of the first Pennsylvania, to illustrate this idea. edition, “which is that differences in “He was happily married to a genes, sex hormones, and their inwoman for 40 years. She dies and teractions with the emerging brain two years later he meets a guy and leads to gender atypical developthey fall in love. He doesn’t say he ment resulting in gay adults.” thought about guys for years and LeVay is convinced that in the five just didn’t act on it. There are some years since the first edition, there has people who transcend the straight/ been great progress in supporting a gay boundary,” LeVay said. “What is biological basis for sexual orientaprimary for them is not the sex of tion, meaning biological processes their partner, but who they are and undergirding being gay are already their relationship to them. They go set up before birth. beyond these categorizations.

When asked about whether being “This is more true for women gay himself, he may be biased in his than men, but as the case with Harresearch, LeVay replied, “Every sciris, it can also occur with men,” entist is a human being with a point LeVay added. “Lisa Diamond at the of view, so you could accuse any sciUniversity of Utah has shown that entist of having a bias.” for many women the boundary be“For decades, researchers were tween heterosexual and homosexual biased against gay people, believing is not as rigid for them as it tends to their condition was caused by a horbe for men. Relationships are more monal imbalance,” he said. “There fluid during the course of their deare actually only a small number of velopment and they may not even researchers who work in this field. be aware of their sexual attraction Last year we had a national conferuntil a significant life event occurs ence in our field, and most attended, such as divorce. They fall in love with maybe 100 people, and I would the person rather than the gender.” say about half are gay and half are

<<

SFPD chief

From page 1

At a news conference in his office Tuesday, December 20, Lee said Scott had the “skill sets” that community members said they wanted during a series of meetings this year, and he said Scott’s “up to the task” of “continuing to build community trust.”

“I’m confident we’ve gained something unique in Deputy Chief Scott,” Lee said.

Scott, who was joined at the news conference by his wife and children, pledged to listen to the community, “take action as appropriate,” and “be consistent.”

“Every department has issues,” he said, and “every department has things to work on,” but the officers he’s met so far have given him the impression the SFPD isn’t “insular.”

Scott, who’s originally from Alabama, joined the LAPD in 1989 and worked in the agency’s patrol, detectives, gangs, internal affairs, and other bureaus over the years. He was promoted to commander in 2012 and became a deputy chief in 2015. Most recently, he oversaw the department’s South Bureau, which has over 1,700 employees and serves almost 640,000 residents, according to Lee’s office.

The LAPD has “enacted dozens of major reforms” in the last 16 years,

Gaydar

LeVay said there is a scientific basis for gaydar, the ability to recognize gay people without knowing in advance their sexual orientation. There are discernible physical characteristics of gay men that differ from straight men, such as proportions of the limbs and trunk, differences in facial structures, and subtle differences in unconscious behaviors such as walking style and voice quality, he said.

“Gaydar does work but it is not infallible,” LeVay said. “If, in a lab, you ask people to listen to voices and then ask them which is gay or straight you get a high correct response usually because there are about the same number of gay and straight subjects. But it’s not as effective in the real world because there is such a small population of gay people so there will be a good number of false positives if even a small number of straight guys appear gay. But in general gay people are gender-atypical both in their anatomy and behavior, which is picked up by gaydar.”

Another reason gay fetuses may be produced is birth order, with a Canadian study showing that a boy who has older brothers is more likely to grow up gay than a boy who does not, he said. It’s not the actual experience of growing up with an older brother that produces this effect but the mother generates some sort of antibodies against the first male fetus, which interacts with the developing brain of later male fetuses, making that fetus more likely to be gay, said LeVay. “It’s possible this older brother effect may account for maybe a quarter of gay boys. Some later studies, especially one conducted in Denmark where they are more accepting of homosexuality, did not replicate these results. But they did observe that if the later son was fathered by a different man, he was less likely to be gay. So I tend to believe that the maternal-immunity hypothesis could be a good biological reason for the older-brother effect.”

LeVay asserted that genes exert a significant, but not all-dominating, influence on sexual orientation, though no gay gene has yet been discovered.

Criticism

The most persistent criticism of LeVay’s work has been the possibility that if gayness is inherited and researchers find the mechanisms through which this happens, then society might try to develop a method to cure or prevent homosexuality in fetuses or just abort a gay fetus.

“I find this idea to be science fiction, especially because it is likely that there are probably several biological pathways leading to one being gay, whether it be genes, the birth order effect, or the role of sex hormones,” he said. “The fact is this type of research has helped to lead to acceptance of LGBT people, not just tolerance. Of course social factors have had a positive influence because most people now actually know someone who is gay.”t

the mayor’s office said in a news release, including use of force investigations and improving the ways it tracks officer misconduct.

Police Commission President Suzy Loftus said at the news conference, “San Franciscans care deeply about this city, and they care very deeply about who their police chief is.”

Scott is “the right man at the right time for this department,” Loftus said, adding that “San Francisco can be the beacon of hope” and “we can rebuild trust.”

Board of Supervisors President London Breed said she’s “very exSee page 15 >>

AIDS at 35>>

t Getting to Zero sees progress but disparities remain

by Liz Highleyman

S

an Francisco continues to make progress in reducing new HIV infections and expanding access to early treatment, according to a World AIDS Day update on the city’s Getting to Zero initiative. But some groups are not benefitting as much as others and need greater focus.

“We have done a lot of good things, but we cannot pat ourselves too much on the back because we have not made a big dent in the disparity statistics,” said Dr. Diane Havlir, chief of the Division of HIV/ AIDS at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

In the wake of the recent election, many in the city’s HIV/AIDS community are worried about the consequences of President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, including dismantling of the Affordable Care Act and cuts to federal funding of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program.

But San Francisco is likely to fare better than many other cities.

“I refuse to go backward and I think all of you are with me on that,” city Health Director Barbara Garcia, a lesbian, said at the December 1 forum. “You are very fortunate to live in San Francisco and to have the kind of political support that says health is one of the top concerns and needs of our community.”

Scott Wiener, a gay man who was on the Board of Supervisors but was sworn in as the city’s state senator earlier this month, vowed to advocate for people with HIV in the Legislature.

“It could not be a more scary yet opportune time” to go to Sacramento, Wiener said at the event, held at UCSF’s Mission Bay campus. “You can do things [in San Francisco] that you can’t do elsewhere. We need

December 22-28, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

to take that statewide. We need to make sure that Getting to Zero is being replicated everywhere, that we’re expanding PrEP access everywhere, and we’re making sure that everyone with HIV has access to their meds at all times.”

Progress in 2015

The Getting to Zero initiative aims to make San Francisco the first city to achieve the UNAIDS goals of eliminating new HIV infections, deaths due to HIV/AIDS, and stigma against people living with HIV by 2020. It relies on a three-prong strategy of expanded access to PrEP; rapid initiation of antiretroviral therapy, or ART; Liz Highleyman and engaging and retaining HIVUCSF’s Dr. Diane Havlir positive people in care.

The latest San Francisco Department of Public Health HIV ing up about 6 percent of the city’s epidemiology report, released in population.

September, shows that the numDr. Albert Liu of the DPH reportber of new HIV diagnoses fell 17 ed on behalf of the Getting to Zero percent in 2015, to 255, the lowest PrEP committee that the city recentlevel since the start of the epidemic. ly launched a social marketing camThe total number of deaths due to paign – “Our Sexual Revolution” – all causes among people living with to encourage gay and bisexual men HIV also fell, by about 10 percent, of color and transgender women to to 197. About 40 percent of those consider daily Truvada (tenofovir/ deaths were due to HIV/AIDSemtricitabine) for HIV prevention. related causes.

San Francisco has taken the lead And San Francisco continues to on access to PrEP. Informal estido a better job than the U.S. as a mates suggest that 6,000 to 10,000 whole in moving people through the people in the city may be taking continuum of care, from HIV testTruvada for PrEP. However, to date ing to linkage to care to initiation of major PrEP providers, including the treatment to viral suppression.

San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s But there are still notable dispariMagnet program at Strut and Kaiser ties. African-Americans are the only Permanente, have primarily served group for whom new HIV diagnowhite and Latino gay men. ses are stable or rising rather than declining, and blacks are more likely Rapid treatment to be diagnosed late and less likely Dr. Oliver Bacon of UCSF and to be promptly linked to care. Afthe HIV Division at SFGH gave a rican-Americans accounted for 17 progress report from the Getting to percent of all new HIV diagnoses in Zero Rapid committee, which aims San Francisco in 2015, despite makto get people newly diagnosed with

HIV on antiretroviral treatment as soon as possible – ideally the same day.

Currently the median time from diagnosis to initiation of care is seven days and the time from starting care to treatment initiation is six days. Altogether, the time from diagnosis to reaching an undetectable viral load is 69 days – down from 131 days in 2013.

“Physicians around the city are quite willing to do rapid ART,” Bacon said. “One of the major barriers to [rapid ART] is insurance status. If you have Medi-Cal or public insurance it’s very easy to get rapid ART in San Francisco, but if you’re eligible for commercial insurance or are uninsured, it’s actually much more difficult.”

The city has created the first directory of Rapid providers who can start ART right away, as well as an insurance navigation guide.

Reporting from the retention and re-engagement in care committee, Edwin Charlebois, Ph.D., from UCSF’s Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, said that the city has received renewed funding from the MAC AIDS Fund for a linkage demonstration project. A pharmacy working group is exploring whether pharmacists can help identify people at risk of falling out of care.

Stigma is harder to measure than the number of people on PrEP or the length of time to viral suppression, but Austin Padilla from the stigma committee said the goal for the next year is to establish metrics.

HIV among young and old

A member of the audience asked where young people fit into the Getting to Zero plan.

According to the latest HIV Surveillance Report from the Centers for Disease Control and Preven-

tion, young adults age 25-29 are the only age group to see an increase in new HIV diagnoses in 2015. In San Francisco this age group accounts for 23 percent of new diagnoses, while those age 18-24 account for 13 percent.

Liu said that the PrEP committee has identified youth as a high priority and the city is talking about establishing a fund to provide PrEP for young people. Oliver noted that Larkin Street Youth Services was one of the first to sign on to the rapid ART program.

The Getting to Zero meeting concluded with a discussion of HIV and aging. According to the DPH annual report, 60 percent of people living with HIV in San Francisco are age 50 and older.

“We quit our jobs, went on disability, and prepared to die – but some of us didn’t,” said long-term survivor Hank Trout. “Our golden years are turning into tin.”

Vince Crisostomo, manager of SFAF’s 50-Plus Network, said that housing is the biggest concern of older people living with HIV in San Francisco.

Dr. Monica Gandhi, medical director of the HIV clinic at SFGH, described a new program – dubbed Golden Compass – that will launch in early January at Ward 86. The program will centralize services for HIV-positive people age 50 and older, including cardiology and neuropsychiatric care, exercise and fitness for bone strength, vision and hearing services, and peer support groups.

“So much in HIV started in San Francisco and we need to be on the forefront of HIV and aging,” Gandhi said. “As we work toward the [Getting to Zero] goal, we need to make sure people living with HIV are living better.”t

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<< Community News

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 22-28, 2016

Cost of SF LGBT center remodel grows

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

need to fix its leaking rooftop windows and a decision to replace the building’s air conditioning and heating system as part of the remodel of the LGBT Community Center have added $400,000 to the project’s initial $6.5 million price tag.

The added work has pushed back the expected completion date of the project, which center officials had initially hoped would have wrapped up by the end of September. The work should now be done by March, with an official re-opening event scheduled for Sunday, April 9, and the center is fundraising to cover the additional costs.

“We now know more about this building than we have ever known,” Rebecca Rolfe, the center’s executive director, told the Bay Area Reporter during a tour of the remodeled interior Friday, December 16. “The HVAC system never worked well. It is invisible but important.”

Reinstalling the exterior rooftop windows was also a necessary expense, said center officials, in order to plug leaks that for years had allowed water to seep into the building during winter storms. Each of the glass window panels were individually removed so the joints that hold them into place could be resealed or replaced if necessary.

“I am happy to say yesterday there was no water leaking,” said Rolfe, referring to the heavy rains that hit the Bay Area last Thursday.

The LGBT center is financing the project with a $10.3 million loan from Capital One in partnership with the Northern California Community Loan Fund. The financing includes New Market Tax Credit equity investments, as well as a $4.4 million senior loan and a $1 million bridge loan. The financing arrange-

Photo: Mike Pierce

Rick Gerharter

Executive Director Rebecca Rolfe walks through the still unfinished renovated lobby of the LGBT Community Center.

ment allowed the center to retire its $2.9 million debt from the cost of the initial construction of the building, which opened in 2002.

Throughout the renovation process, which began in April, the center’s staff has continued to work out of the building and see clients there, though it has been closed to the general public. As of last week most of the employees had been relocated into the building’s redone rainbow room on the second floor as their offices in the first and second floors of the Victorian building are repainted and have new flooring installed.

“It’s been noisy and messy at times, but we mostly made it through,” said Rolfe.

Lots of color

Once the work concludes the entire 35,000 square foot facility, inside and out, will pop with color.

Center officials and local architect S. Jane Cee, who designed the building and has been working on the remodel, worked with the design firm

Gensler on the new color scheme.

“The whole design concept relies on bringing bright colors into the center to make the space more lively and welcoming,” explained Rolfe.

The facade of the Fallon Building, a Queen Anne-style Victorian built in 1894 at the corner site, where Market Street and Octavia Boulevard intersect, is being repainted with Dunn Edwards Palace Purple as the main color.

For the sashes Benjamin Moore Gentle Violet was picked, while Sherwin Williams Vibrant Orchid is being used for the window frames.

And for the building’s ribbon ornamentations Dunn Edwards Twilight Twinkle was chosen.

The exterior of the modern building, located at 1800 Market Street, has been repainted Dunn Edwards Rare Turquoise. The same color has been used for one side of the Waller Street entrance hallway and the wall surrounding the ground floor elevators.

The underside of the interior staircase in the modern portion

is now painted in a yellow color known as PPG Citrus Spice. A mural featuring slanted beams of various colors reminiscent of the rainbow flag’s colors will be featured on the right side lobby wall as well as on the right side wall of the entire stairway.

Each of the new meeting rooms built on the bottom half of the building will have their own accent colors. The downstairs David Bohnett Cyber Center, being installed just past the elevators, will feature Kelly Moore Orange Zest.

Upstairs, a new meeting room built over the lobby atrium has one wall painted Kelly Moore Dangerously Red. The interior of the rainbow room, which is now flush to the windows fronting Market Street and has a capacity of 263 people, sports walls painted with Dunn Edwards Rare Turquoise and Gentle Violet.

On the Waller side of the second floor are two new meeting rooms, the first of which is being referred to as the Board Room and has one wall painted Benjamin Moore Bermuda Teal. The next room features Dunn Edwards Pool Party, a bright blue, and features a new glass wall fronting an existing steel garage door that can be opened from the outside to let light into the space.

All of the building’s duct work and ceilings have been painted with Kelly Moore Whitest White.

The hallways and interior spaces adorned in that color will likely be used for showcasing artists’ works.

“It makes it feel really bright,” said Rolfe. “We wanted to bring in a lot of light to the building.”

Nonprofits move into upper floors

As the B.A.R. first reported in September 2015, center officials decided to completely gut the interior

t

of the modern portion of the building to create new offices for a variety of nonprofit agencies as a way to generate a steady flow of income. It was an acknowledgement that the building’s original model, mainly to rent out rooms for events and meetings, was no longer financially feasible.

Nonetheless, center officials still wanted to maintain some meeting rooms to rent out. They worked with Cee to carve them out of under-utilized space on the first and second floors.

The new meeting rooms are not yet available for rent by outside groups. The ground floor one will have glass walls that can be collapsed in order to open up the space for events. Floor-to-ceiling glass walls enclose the main second floor meeting room.

“The idea was for the building to have more transparency and openness,” said Rolfe. “This is a community that is open and visible. We want this building to sort of demonstrate that.”

The center’s third and fourth floors have been entirely leased by three local nonprofits. A fourth, the UCSF Center of Excellence for Transgender Health, informed the center this spring it had decided not to move into the building’s ceremonial room on the fourth floor.

Instead, Bay Area Legal Aid has leased it to use as meeting space and an overflow work area for its staff. It had already signed a lease to relocate its San Francisco regional office into the entire third floor of the center, which it moved into on November 18 and began seeing clients at on November 21.

The section in the modern portion of the building was rebuilt See page 14 >>

t

Community News>>

December 22-28, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

SF pot task force issues recommendations

by Sari Staver

S

an Francisco’s Cannabis State Legalization Task Force has approved 80 recommendations on how the city should implement Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, which was passed by 56.5 percent of California voters in November.

The recommendations, which address a wide range of policy issues, including land use and social justice, public safety and social environment, and regulation and city agency framework, will be presented to the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee in January.

Prepared by the task force’s 22 members after a year of study, the recommendations are included in a 181-page report published by the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

In a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter, task force Chair Terrance Alan said he was “very proud of the report, which was developed entirely by consensus” and was anticipating next year’s goal to develop specific legislative proposals “to manage the newly created legalized cannabis marketplace, from plant to consumer.”

Alan, a gay man, is an activist and cannabis industry consultant and previously served as president of the San Francisco Entertainment Commission.

The new recommendations stemmed from passage of Prop 64, which made it legal for individuals age 21 and older to possess, transport, purchase, consume, and share up to one ounce of cannabis and eight grams of cannabis concentrates; and personally cultivate up to six plants in their private residence.

Along with a state-based regula-

tory structure, Prop 64 also allows localities to tailor implementation of the law to their needs and preferences. In anticipation of this, then-San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener sponsored legislation creating the task force to advise the city. Wiener was sworn in earlier this month as San Francisco’s new state senator.

According to Alan, Prop 64 can be amended by the state Legislature if, for example, a city or county decides that elements of the new law “don’t work in their culture.”

For example, said Alan, San Francisco is “a city of foodies” that may want to try to change Steve Underhill the law’s prohibition of selling or using cannabis in any establish- Terrance Alan is chair of the San Francisco Cannabis State ment that sells alcohol.

Legalization Task Force.

“There is already a cannabis catering industry,” Alan said, and “we will want to discuss the • Local policy guidelines for drivtools used by schools to discipline limitations” of forbidding the use of ing under the influence should be students. cannabis in restaurants and bars, he developed that are based on behav• San Francisco should include said. ior testing until science-based testadult use cannabis retail businesses Alan said the task force studing exists. in existing “formula retail” rules, ied the experiences of states that • San Francisco should allow onwhich state that if an establishhad adopted cannabis legalization site consumption at cannabis retail ment has 11 or more retail locations to understand any “unintended locations. worldwide, it is subject to a more consequences.”

• The San Francisco Unified stringent review and authorization For example, Colorado’s cannabis School District should be involved process. regulations banned consumption of in developing age-appropriate can• San Francisco should collabomarijuana in public, putting tournabis education for San Francisco rate with schools and colleges to ists who bought products legally schools’ health education program. develop training and apprenticeship “into a position of breaking the law” • Because it’s unlikely that, even programs for individuals to parunless they went back to their hotel with the most robust cannabis ticipate in all aspects of the cannabis room to use it. education programs for youth, industry to increase opportunities “In San Francisco,” noted Alan, there will be a zero percent usage for people to enter the industry. “we have a huge tourist economy” rate among minors, San Francisco • San Francisco should develop and should anticipate figuring out schools should take a reality and a mechanism to prioritize the re“how and where” the city expects science-based disciplinary appermitting of medical cannabis people to consume. proach and rely on harm reduction business operators who were shut “It’s definitely something we want principles to manage such situadown by the federal government or to address in our proposed legislations. For example, for minors who lost their original permit due to sale tion” next year, Alan said. commit cannabis-related offenses of building and loss of lease.

Some of the 80 recommendations while at school, suspension and • San Francisco should ensure issued in the current report are: expulsion should not be the default that those with a criminal justice

history are not automatically barred from job opportunities within the cannabis industry, and that license holders are incentivized to hire people with a criminal justice history to the extent possible.

• San Francisco should create incentives for cannabis businesses to hire local residents and individuals from communities affected by mass incarceration.

The city should also create hiring preference policies for residents who have moved out of the city due to the high cost of living.

• San Francisco should engage workforce development organizations, community-based organizations, community members, and other key stakeholders to develop strategies to reduce economic barriers for people of color, women, and formerly incarcerated persons to enter the cannabis industry as entrepreneurs.

• San Francisco should develop pathways, such as an amnesty program, to encourage existing businesses to transition from the illicit to legal market.

• San Francisco should consider creation of new types of licenses, to accommodate the diverse businesses within the adult use cannabis industry, such as special baking or cooking licenses, consumption lounges, or events such as farmers’ markets.

• San Francisco should consider establishing local cannabis taxes to generate revenue that may be allocated to local cannabis legalization priorities not already funded through state taxes or other funding mechanisms.t To read the report, visit www.sfdph.org/dph/comupg/ knowlcol/csl/default.asp.

MUNI PRICE CHANGES JAN. 1, 2017

311 Free language assistance / 免費語言協助 / Ayuda gratis con el idioma / Бесплатная помощь переводчиков / Trợ giúp Thông dịch Miễn phí / Assistance linguistique gratuite / 無料の言語支援 / 무료 언어 지원 / Libreng tulong para sa wikang Filipino / การช่วยเหลือทางด้านภาษาโดยไม่เสียค่าใช้จา่ ย / ‫خط املساعدة املجاين عىل الرمق‬

<< Sports

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 22-28, 2016

Turning 500

by Roger Brigham

I

was fired as deputy sports editor from the Oakland Tribune in late June 1995, possibly the casualty of homophobia, but just as likely the result of a newspaper culture of merging ownership and staffing reduction: more news delivered with fewer viewpoints to more people. It capped an award-winning career that had taken me from Alaska (where I became the first openly gay sports editor in the country) to Los Angeles (where I was nominated for a Pulitzer) to upstate New York (where I took a little time off to write the cover story on Magic Johnson for the Advocate) to the Bay Area.

Hence when I wrote my first sports column for the Bay Area Reporter on January 4, 2007 I posted it with the cheeky and cryptic headline, “I’m Bart Simpson – Who the hell are you?” Having entertained millions of mainstream sports readers the previous few decades, I was then taking up an assignment handled previously by such local legends as Tom Waddell, Jack “Irene” McGowan, and Jim Provenzano to bring my brand of journalistic commentary to the Bay Area LGBT community.

I have endeavored since then to talk with you about the threads of racism, homophobia, sexism, and transphobia that are so deeply woven into the tapestry of sports. I have written about slurs and exultations, about emotional victories and devastating losses. I have done my best to encourage couch potatoes to become athletes, athletes to become coaches, coaches to become advocates.

A decade has passed. This is the 500th sports column I have written for the B.A.R., a number I never would have imagined when I took up the assignment as a bit of a lark.

My role with the B.A.R. is a hybrid. My primary duty is to present a personal perspective on issues and events, but I often have to serve as sports news reporter, informing the readership about facts before I toss in my two cents.

“I refer to Roger as a ‘thinking man’s sports writer,’” said Doug Litwin, longtime marketing officer for the Federation of Gay Games.

“I mean that his angles and analyses go way beyond the box score and the sound bites from overpaid pro athletes and their coaches. After reading most of his columns, it’s common to sit back, stroke one’s chin, and say something like, ‘Hmmm, I

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LGBT center

From page 12

to accommodate the nonprofit agency’s 25 full-time staff, two temporary staff members, and three volunteers. Bay Legal’s clients include immigrants, youth who are low-income, homeless, or in foster care, and low-income renters facing eviction or people facing housing discrimination.

It has signed a 10-year lease with an option to renew for another five at a below-market-rate rent. While the agency would not disclose the price, the center expects to receive $600,000 per year from the leases with the trio of nonprofits.

“It really came together beautifully,” said Jerel McCrary, a gay man who has been the managing attorney of Bay Legal’s regional office in San Francisco since 2014. “I really congratulate the project directors and their construction team on how they pulled this off.”

McCrary, whose new office is in

t

never saw it that way before.’”

At the end of my first column, I dropped in a note telling the readers that LGBT softball icon McGowan was in a therapy center following open-heart surgery and asking for donations to help with his medical expenses. I later had the chance to get to know him through lengthy conversations. He told me what he liked about my writing was that unlike many queer journalists, I didn’t treat sports like pornography.

We all had to say goodbye to McGowan in late January 2009. Sadly, in the course of the past decade, I’ve had to write about the deaths of so many others who gave so much to LGBT sports: Peg Grey, Pete Runyon, Debra Kent, Michael Clarke, Ralph Countryman.

Among the athletes on the global stage whom I’ve had to say goodbye to in the columns include the good, the bad, and the what-thehell: Pat Summit, Muhammad Ali, Joe Paterno, Christopher Bowman, Marc Leduc, Mike Penner, Tommy Morrison, Chris Benoit.

So much joy and sadness.

When I wrote the first of the B.A.R. columns, I was an active volunteer in the Gay Games movement, and the chairman of an international LGBT wrestling organization. As I write my 500th, I am retired from both of those efforts; have founded a national support network for LGBT coaches; am in my ninth year as wrestling coach at Mission High, five as head coach; gone on dialysis and a kidney waiting list; had triple bypass heart surgery; had a stroke and am currently preparing to have cardiac surgery yet again; and been inducted into the National LGBT Sports Hall of Fame.

Not bad for a longtime survivor.

Over this course of time we witnessed the birth of the Pride Track and Field meet, mourned an exodus of LGBT clubs from Eureka Valley Recreation Center, and celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Gay Games.

I have been blessed to work with an editor who provides me with considerable rope and saves me from innumerable typos; and to work with one of the few LGBT publications that acknowledges sports as a legitimate part of our community. Most of all I have been blessed to have an opportunity to reapply the skills late in life.

And now, for those of you just joining our program, a recap of some of what I have been saying the

past 10 years.

• On wrestling and playing rugby: “I find the two very similar, except with rugby you get cigarettes and beer.”

• On pro sports efforts to deal with homophobia: “Bigotry, whether over race or orientation, occurs not on a once-a-year basis but minute by minute throughout the days.

Like a mushroom, bigotry feeds in darkness on crap. It must be exterminated not by the occasional glare of the media spotlight on a single athlete coming out after the fact, but by the brightness of articulated enlightenment and an absolute intolerance for intolerance the instant it is uttered.”

• On basketball player John Amaechi coming out: “The bar is higher now, thanks to the many athletes in many sports who have followed. By today’s standard, Amaechi’s coming out is not an ‘act of courage.’ It is commendable. It is even important. But that does not in and of itself make it an act of courage. True courage occurs at the time of greatest imminent risk; it cannot be postdated and handed out like a gold watch at a retirement dinner.”

• On sports coverage by the Advocate: “Making a deal to exclude an LGBT publication from the opportunity to report the news on equal terms and equal timing with its geographic mainstream competitors needlessly ghettoizes the LGBT community. It is on an ethical par with paying a news source. That’s not the news business. That’s packaged entertainment. The Advocate should be ashamed of itself. Journalistic reward should come from serving the community’s interests, not its own.”

• On Tommy Morrison’s return to boxing after testing positive for HIV: “Boxing remains on the barbaric fringes. No doubt we will be hearing much more in the months ahead as Morrison continues his comeback, but it would be nice if the noise signified rational, humanitarian discussion rather than cultural fear, marketing spin, and political ranting. It would be nice for boxers and others to make rational and compassionate choices, rather than guesses based on fears and incomplete information.”

• On the resignation of LSU basketball coach Pokey Chatman: “Much of the commentary that has followed Chatman’s resignation has focused on the fact that relations between hetero male coaches with female athletes or cheerleaders are often ignored or tolerated with a wink and a nod. But that merely shows the importance that all rela-

tionships between adult leaders and adolescent followers should be held to a consistent standard, rather than accepted or damned depending on the prejudices of the jury.”

• On athletic privilege: “’Jocks get treated differently than other people,’ one blogger wrote. Well, boohoo, that’s true. Do not blame the objects of our adulation for our adulation.

Assuming a jock is guilty or innocent simply because the jock is a jock is bigotry on par with racism, ageism, homophobia, or any other black hole in the human heart.”

• On steroids in sports: “The reality is these substances were created in medical laboratories, financed by hopes to save lives. It is not medicine that creates monsters, but its misuse.”

• On Michael Vick and dog fighting: “Vick’s supporters said he made ‘a bad decision.’ No – he made bad decision after bad decision, day after day, for six years.

Each decision cost suffering and death. And he’s not the one who ‘fell into a bad situation.’ That would be the dogs, and Vick would be the one who pushed them.”

• On the culture of sexual assault in sports: “Good coaches teach athletes to respect themselves and respect others. That’s the definition of good sportsmanship and the antithesis of rape.”

• On Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protests: “I ask of those who were angered and disgusted over Kaepernick’s failure to fall into knee-jerk acceptance of a symbol because of his concern with the reality of racial inequality and injustice, hard-wired into the American system since the days of

the Founding Fathers failed in their execution of the ideal of freedom for all: Where was your anger over the reality of injustice, and how did you express yourselves? How effective were you?”

• On radio personality Don Imus’ referring to the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy headed hos:” “Q. Do you think most Americans wanted Imus fired? A. No. Most Americans wanted to scrape him off the bottom of their shoes.”

• On the Virginia Tech massacre: “Homeland security be damned – none of us ever was safe in this world and none of us ever will be.

None of us can ever be sure of what ultimate test we shall be faced with – it may be a deranged student, it may be a terrorist, it may be a virus – but we can be damned sure we will be tested. And sports is as good a way as any to develop grace under fire.”

• On Daily Beast reporter Nico Hines’ article outing gay Olympians through their use of Grindr: “Hines wasn’t reporting on an athletic performance in front of a global audience. He was lurking in the precious private moments of strangers looking for a few minutes of peace and acceptance. He risked their lives and well being for a few dozen clicks and chuckles. Not an Olympic effort.”

• On the passing of Muhammad Ali: “It may be difficult for people of a younger generation to understand the impact and stature of Ali, his uniqueness and significance on the global stage. There are countless means of public communications now, and self-promoting celebrities such as Michael Jordan, Justin Bieber, and the Kardashian clan bombard us in nonstop profusion. But for the most part, they are devoid of social consciousness, and celebrity in the 1960s and 1970s was a rare commodity, with few means of dissemination.

In this regard, Ali transcended and transformed his era.”

I spent my career in mainstream newspapers focusing on elite competitive sports. Getting involved in the Gay Games after having dual hip replacement surgery changed my thoughts on sports, led me to focus on inclusive sports that enabled more people to enjoy the competition and participation opportunities I enjoyed in my youth.

Writing this column has changed me even more. I’ve had the chance to alert people to the insidious nature of the sexism and racism that infects so many sports structures.

I’ve made the transition from athlete and reporter to activist and advocate. Who would’ve guessed I’d be blessed for one more opportunity so late in the game?t

the Victorian side of the building, said the agency built two smaller conference rooms on the third floor for it to use. But neither can accommodate the entire staff for meetings or hold public conferences such as the eviction defense legal seminars it routinely holds, necessitating it leasing out the additional space.

“We may have some modular offices up there for law clerks or use the space for specific projects,” said McCrary.

Also housed on the fourth floor in a new suite of offices where an open atrium had been is AGUILAS, short for Assembly of United Gays Impacting Latinos toward Self-Empowerment. The agency had been renting office space on the building’s third floor and has remained open throughout the center’s rebuild.

Eduardo Morales, Ph.D, AGUILAS’ executive director, did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

The third tenant will be the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center. It is set to operate a new primary care clinic on the fourth floor where a warren of small offices rented by local nonprofits had been. It is expected to begin moving into its space in the coming weeks.

The building should also have a fourth new tenant, Theresa Sparks, Mayor Ed Lee’s senior adviser for transgender initiatives. The city is looking to turn a roughly 1,475

square foot space, where a gayowned coffee shop once operated on the building’s ground floor, into office space for Sparks.

This summer the city’s real estate division entered into talks with center officials to lease the space for $5,162.50 per month. It would have its own, separate Market Street entrance, as a wall is being built to close it off from the rest of the building.

It had been hoped the space

would be ready for Sparks to move into by mid-November. Yet as of Wednesday morning the city had not signed off on the lease.

In an emailed reply to the B.A.R. on Monday, Claudia J. Gorham, the city’s assistant director of real estate, said the lease negotiations “should be finalized before the end of the year and hopefully executed before the end of the year, so that the tenant improvements can be completed during the current renovations.”t

that San Francisco was “the best finishing school.” His corporate career was being an executive secretary at Chevron, followed by the same position at the Bank of America. His interests were many and varied, focused on the entertainment industry, about which he had considerable expertise. He had a remarkable collection of movie and stage memorabilia, and had an encyclopedic knowledge of this area.

He loved to travel and had been an exchange student, living in England.

That experience turned him into an

Anglophile of the first rank. His later trip to Argentina with friends was a highlight of his life. He loved to celebrate life, especially Christmas, decorating and entertaining lavishly for the holiday season. His Christmas teas were legendary.

Alan moved to Mounds, Oklahoma, in 2014 to be near relatives. He was a cheerful presence at the Twin Peaks bar, and will be missed by his wide circle of friends. He is survived by his Aunt Jean, in Mounds, Oklahoma, and two cousins.

Roger Brigham is shown in an advertising photo promoting the debut of his column in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner – which lasted one day before the paper vanished from existence.

Obituaries >> Alan Greer Snelling July 11, 1944 – October 18, 2016

After being raised in Oklahoma and Fresno, California, and graduating from Fresno State College in the mid-1960s, Alan moved to San Francisco. He loved living here, and participated fully in the life of the city.

One of his many clever remarks was

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Community News>>

Joseph

From page 1

entertainment commission, Audrey has demonstrated bold leadership and inspired us all with an insightful and passionate approach. She is truly a force of nature and will be greatly missed.”

Kane noted that Joseph served as the commission’s president in 2004, 2007, and 2008, and said she had been “a fierce advocate for artists and creative professionals, promoting responsible nightlife and a commitment to upholding standards of safety and equity for all entertainment professionals.”

Additionally, she said, Joseph “was responsible for creating the founding rules, regulations, and processes of the commission alongside the other founding members.

Audrey brought a wealth of knowledge from her experience working in the entertainment and nightlife industry and served as a mentor to incoming commissioners.”

Heklina, the local drag star who co-owns the Oasis cabaret and nightclub at 298 11th Street, said of Joseph, “She’s definitely a ballbuster and a hard-ass,” but there’s “a heart of

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Ghost Ship

From page 1

“The last permitted use of the building was as a warehouse,” officials recently said in a news release. On November 13, the city “received complaints of blight and unpermitted interior construction at the building.”

On November 17, officials stated, “a city building inspector visited the property and verified the blight complaint, but could not gain access to the building to confirm the other complaint regarding unpermitted construction. This is an ongoing investigation.”

San Francisco inspections

Inspectors in San Francisco don’t appear to be any more proactive than those in Oakland when it comes to examining warehouses and other industrial spaces.

San Francisco Department of Building Inspection data list 218 properties that are categorized as “warehouse industrial,” that aren’t

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SFPD chief

From page 10

cited” about Scott’s appointment, but the challenge isn’t just rebuilding trust, it’s “establishing trust in the first place.”

“I’m looking forward to a new day in San Francisco,” Breed said.

“I’m looking forward to change, noticeable change,” and making sure that people who aren’t worthy of wearing a police uniform “are weeded out.”

Outsider status

Asked about coming into a “tight-knit” department as an outsider, Scott said that he’s been an officer before during similar leadership changes, and rank-and-file cops are more concerned about whether they’re getting the support they need to do their job than where their leader comes from.

Scott was also asked for his thoughts about whether officers should be permitted to shoot at moving vehicles, a concern that became especially prominent in May when San Francisco police fatally shot Jessica Williams in the Bayview District as she tried to maneuver a car that had been stolen.

Williams’ death helped end Suhr’s career with the SFPD. Police shooting at moving vehicles has been a bone of contention between the police commission and the officers’ union.

gold underneath that gruff exterior.”

“She was on the entertainment commission when we went before the board to get our after-hours license. She really believed in us,” said Heklina, also known as Stefan Grygelko.

December 22-28, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

Long history A longtime promoter who was responsible for Club Universe, a weekly gay dance club that took place from the 1990s into the early 2000s, Joseph also worked for years as the main stage producer for the San Francisco LGBT Pride celebration.

She suspects that when people first heard of the entertainment commission, on which she held the industry representative seat, they thought, “What does that mean?

They’re not serious.”

But now, she said, city officials and residents “realize that we were serious about establishing best practices and helping to reinvigorate the industry. I think we actually achieved all those things.”

Along with a thriving nightlife have come new, high-price condominiums. Joseph said surviving the construction boom is the biggest issue facing the industry.

“Entertainment is being squeezed,” she said, pointing to the live music venue Bottom of the Hill at 1233 17th Street in the Potrero Hill neighborhood as an example.

“If you look at it, it’s being surrounded on all sides” by residential construction, Joseph said. Finding the space where residential and entertainment spaces can coexist will be the commission’s “greatest challenge.”

Joseph doesn’t know who will succeed her on the commission.

“It’s the mayor’s choice,” she said.

“I did suggest a number of people send in their resumes.” (Spokespeople for Lee didn’t respond to an email from the B.A.R.) “I hope we find someone who not only has a good knowledge of sound and sound attenuation but also of venue operations. ... That’s what I did, mostly. I made sure we had great operators and they controlled their sound,” Joseph said.

Joseph, who was diagnosed in 2014 with ovarian cancer, said she’s doing “much better. I am cancer free.”

She declined to share her age, saying, “I’m not telling you that. You’ve got to be kidding. ... I’m 100. I’ve certainly lived a life of 100 years, that’s for sure.”t

regularly inspected.

“I think the only time DBI inspects those is when we get a complaint,” said Bill Strawn, a spokesman for the agency. “We couldn’t get to them” without being alerted that there’s a possible life safety concern.

The department, which already does about 150,000 inspections a year, has approximately 129 inspectors. About half of those get involved in code enforcement.

DBI is currently looking at eight complaints related to the industrial warehouses. The complaints are based on allegations that warehouses are being converted for residential use or being used as entertainment space without a permit.

When there is a complaint, an inspector will go try to talk to someone at the building. If they can’t get access, they’ll leave a door hanger with a request to schedule an inspection. After three days, if they haven’t heard anything, they’ll go a second time. If that’s still un-

successful, the building’s owner will be prohibited from getting any new permit for the site until they respond to the initial inspection request.

When that doesn’t work, the property owner will be instructed to come for a director’s hearing.

If the owner doesn’t show up, an order of abatement will be issued, so they won’t be able to do things like sell the property or get a bank loan. Those steps result in issues being corrected 95 percent of the time, Strawn said. In the rest of the cases, they may be referred to the city attorney’s office for litigation.

Many have expressed concerns about artists being evicted from warehouses that don’t have permits, but Strawn said, in San Francisco, the rent board would still have oversight.

“Even if you’re living in an illegal space, you still have certain rights,” he said. An owner who decides he doesn’t want the tenants anymore, “he has to go through the rent board and the formal eviction process.”t

The commission has wanted tighter rules in that area, and Scott indicated he’s in line with that stance.

“I’m fully in support of tighter restrictions,” he said.

The police officers’ association had backed Chaplin, who’s been with the department for decades, to be the new police chief.

Scott said he planned to be fair and open, and “If I breach those basic tenets of decency, I’m going to get the union I deserve.”

Martin Halloran, president of the police officers’ association, said in a statement, “The POA was supportive of interim Chief Tony Chaplin during the search process for a new chief. We look forward to meeting William Scott. We anticipate that he will tap into the tremendous talent of the men and women who make up the SFPD. The POA hopes to work closely with him as chief and we are committed to helping him move the department forward here in San Francisco.”

In an email to the Bay Area Reporter, Captain Teresa Ewins, a lesbian who heads the Pride Alliance for LGBT officers and oversees the Tenderloin district police station, said, “We look forward to working with the new chief and have an open mind regarding his appointment. After the New Year and when the chief settles in the Pride Alliance will be asking to meet” with him.

Police Commission Vice President Julius Turman, who’s gay, told the B.A.R. that Scott “has a record of reform, he works well with others, he’s getting high marks by many police accountability organizations, and he is very well versed in 21st century policing policies.”

Scott also provided commissioners with “ways to address some of the issues coming from the Justice Department and the Blue Ribbon Panel,” Turman said.

“I think he also gave us great insight on both working with the police officers’ union as well as maintaining a proper distance between the department and the union so one doesn’t become synonymous with the other,” he said, adding that Scott “is both an implementer and an innovator.”

Turman said Scott will “bring a fresh perspective as an outsider.”

“We didn’t choose him because he was an outsider. ... Of all the candidates, he was the best person to lead us forward on reform,” Turman said.

Commissioner Petra DeJesus, who’s lesbian, said the LAPD has been “on the cutting edge in terms of following best practices” when it comes to issues like use of force.

“He’s a good fit,” DeJesus said of Scott. “You know it when you see it.

He’s a good fit for our department.”

Scott will officially start at the end of January. The current salary for the police chief is about $316,000.t

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037351200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DOES ARCHITECTURE, 22 MONTEZUMA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ERIC D. STATEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/26/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/17/16.

DEC 01, 08, 15, 22, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037357800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRO VET WARE, 3450 17TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ARI ERIC ROZYCKI. 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 11/23/16.

DEC 01, 08, 15, 22, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037360100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Y MIKUMO CO, 130 POPE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YOSHIRO MIKUMO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/23/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/28/16.

DEC 01, 08, 15, 22, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037360400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CONSULT OUR SOURCE, 1628 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAVID W. AGUILAR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/28/16.

DEC 01, 08, 15, 22, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037355900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HAIR BY TERI ANNE, 2444 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TERRI KEMNITZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/21/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/21/16.

DEC 01, 08, 15, 22, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037363500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ZAKHRABOV MOTORS, 1317 EVANS #C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed OREN ZAKHRABOV. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/29/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/29/16.

DEC 01, 08, 15, 22, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552546 In the matter of the application of: SOOYEON CHO, 1435 WASHINGTON ST #7, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SOOYEON CHO, is requesting that the name SOOYEON CHO, be changed to TIFFANY CHO FORD. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 19th of January 2017 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037375600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IAMTHEWAYSERVICES1, 291 HOLLY AVE, SO. SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94080. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MIGUEL A. JIMENEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/17/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/06/16.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037353300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CUMBE LEATHERS, 3448 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICOLAS ULLOA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/18/16.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037372600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MUTINY RADIO AND GALLERY, 2781 21ST ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PAMELA BENJAMIN. 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 12/05/16.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037353900

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037363200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TWIN PEAKS ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTING, 1504 SHRADER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YINLAN ZHANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/29/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/29/16.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037342400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DIG-IT TRAVEL, 77 SHOTWELL ST, UNIT 3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LUKE JOHNSTONE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/28/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/10/16.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037342500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DIG-IT EXPERIENCES, 77 SHOTWELL ST, UNIT 3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LUKE JOHNSTONE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/28/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/10/16.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037350300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WEST PORTAL PRODUCE MARKET, 222 WEST PORTAL AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed YH CHOE AND SONS, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/16/16.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037375200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WASSAM LABORATORIES, 1026 WISCONSIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed WASSAM LABORATORIES INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/06/16.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037370000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RIVERSIDE SEAFOOD RESTAURANT, 1201 VICENTE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed E&S SUNSET GROUP INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/21/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/01/16.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037366400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SLICE HOUSE BY TONY GEMIGNANI, 1535 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed FERAT INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/30/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/30/16.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037369600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JYVE, 832 SANSOME ST, 1ST FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed JYVE (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/02/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/01/16.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037372500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EYEBROW QUEEN SALON, 4792 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed EYEBROW QUEEN SALON INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/05/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/05/16.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037369500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ST. REGIS HOTEL SAN FRANCISCO; ST. REGIS LOBBY LOUNGE; VITRINE; REMEDE SPA; ST. REGIS HOME OWNER ASSOCIATION; GRILL RESTAURANT, 125 3RD STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed QIA SR SAN FRANCISCO OPERATING LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/01/16.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036624600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAY AREA DBT & COUPLES COUNSELING CENTER, 4216 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARIELLE BERG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/18/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/18/16.

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: EYEBROW QUEEN SALON, 4792 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business was conducted by a general partnership and signed

by EYEBROW QUEEN SALON. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/11/15.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016

<< Classifieds

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 22-28, 2016

Classifieds The

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STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035773700

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: BIG SLICE PIZZA, 1535 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed by FERAT INC. (CA).

The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/10/14.

Counseling Services>>

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036255800

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: WASSAM LABORATORIES, 660 4TH ST #297, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by PASCAL WASSAM. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/20/15.

DEC 08, 15, 22, 29, 2016 NOTICE

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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 for General Engineering Services for BART Projects, Request for Proposals No. 6M8119, on or about December 13, 2016, with proposals due by 2:00 PM local time, Tuesday, January 31, 2017.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED The District is soliciting the services for General Engineering Services for BART Projects. The selected CONSULTANT shall provide General Engineering services for BART Projects in accordance with the requirements specified in the Scope of Services of the Request for Proposals (RFP).

A list of areas in which the CONSULTANT may provide services includes, but is not necessarily limited to the following: 1) Facilities including stations and buildings; yard and shops; mainline and yard infrastructure, parking and intermodal access. 2) Systems: including train control, transit power, controls and communications and rail vehicles support. 3) Services to support general scope of services including project development, engineering and design services, advanced technologies, procurement services, emergency response, design support during construction, project administration, and agreement administration.

Estimated Cost and Time of Performance: The District may make up to six (6) awards resulting from the RFP. Each of the possible Agreements awarded under the RFP shall not exceed the amount of Twenty-Five Million Dollars ($25,000,000). However, the Consultant may receive a lesser amount depending upon the District’s actual need for Consultant service and contingent upon funding availability. The term of each of the anticipated Agreements entered into pursuant to the RFP will be for five (5) years, subject to termination or the limit on maximum compensation as provided for in the Agreement.

A Pre-Proposal Meeting and Networking Meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 10, 2017. The Pre-Proposal Meeting will convene at 2 PM through 4PM in the District’s Board Room, Kaiser Center 20th Street Mall – 3rd Floor, located at 344 – 20th Street, Oakland, California 94612. At the Pre-Proposal Meeting the District’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Participation Program will be explained. All questions regarding DBE participation should be directed to Mr. James Soncuya, Office of Civil Rights at (510) 464-7578 – FAX (510) 464-7587. Prospective proposers are requested to make every effort to attend this only scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting and Networking 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.

WHERE TO OBTAIN OR SEE RFP DOCUMENTS (Available on or after December 9, 2016) Copies of the RFP may be obtained electronically as follows: In order for prospective Proposers to be eligible for award of an Agreement being solicited on the BART Procurement Portal, such Proposers are required to be currently registered to do business with BART on the BART Procurement Portal on line at https://suppliers.bart.gov and have obtained Solicitation Documents, updates, and any Addenda issued on line so as to be added to the On-Line Planholders List for this solicitation.

If a prospective Proposer is a joint venture or partnership, such entity may register on the BART Procurement Portal with the entity’s tax identification number (TIN) and download the Solicitation Documents so as to be listed as an on-line planholder under the entity’s name prior to submitting its Proposal. If such entity has not registered on BART Procurement Portal in the name of the joint venture or partnership prior to submitting its Proposal, provided that at least one of the joint venturers or partners registered on line on the BART Procurement Portal and downloaded the Solicitation Documents so as to be added to the On-Line Planholders List for this solicitation, such entity will be required to register with the entity’s TIN as an on-line planholder following the submittal of Proposals, in order for the entity to be eligible for award of this Agreement.

PROPOSERS WHO HAVE NOT REGISTERED ON THE BART PROCUREMENT PORTAL PRIOR TO SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL, (OR FOR A JOINT VENTURE OR PARTNERSHIP AS DESCRIBED ABOVE PRIOR TO AWARD) AND DID NOT DOWNLOAD THE SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS FOR THIS SOLICITATION ON LINE SO AS TO BE LISTED AS AN ONLINE PLANHOLDER FOR THIS SOLICITATION, WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR AWARD OF THIS AGREEMENT. The Procurement Portal includes a Procurement Portal User Guide (User Guide) which provides step-by-step registration instructions.The User Guide is available under the Portal link: Procurement Portal Bidder Registration Help.

Additional registration help is available by emailing a message to vportal@BART.gov.

General inquiries regarding the RFP may be directed to the District’s Contract Administrator, Gary Leong, San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, 300 Lakeside Drive, 17th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612; by email: Gary.

Leong@BART.gov; telephone No. (510) 287-4717 or by fax No. (510) 464-7650.

Dated at Oakland, California this 12th day of December 2016. /S/ Kenneth A. Duron Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 12/22/16 CNS-2955830# BAY AREA REPORTER

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved and preserved throughout the world now and forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us. St. Jude, worker of miracles, pray for us. St. Jude, helper of the hopeless, pray for us.

Say prayer nine time a day for nine days. Thank you Jesus and St. Jude for prayers answered. Publication must be promised. S.W.

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Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037392800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOMA VIDEO PRODUCTIONS, 1040 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed AHMED ADNANI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/20/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/20/16.

DEC 22, 29, JAN 05, 12, 2016 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036508000

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: NORIEGA STREET CLEANERS, 1711 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by YUEER LIN. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/29/15.

DEC 22, 29, JAN 05, 12, 2016

The Annual Report of the Burk Chung Foundation, 837 Washington Street, San Francisco, California 94108 is available at the Foundation’s office for inspection during regular business hours. Copies of the Annual Report have been furnished to the Attorney General of the State of California. Burk Chung, Trustee. Fiscal year ended November 30, 2016.

DEC 15, 22, 29, JAN 05, 2017 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FORCHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552615

In the matter of the application of: LARRY DUKE ROGERS, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner LARRY DUKE ROGERS is requesting that the name ROGERS be changed to LARRY DUKE ROGERS. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Rm. 514 on the 7th of February 2017 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 15, 22, 29, JAN 05, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037379000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SEABEE CONSTRUCTION, 1387 BRUSSELS ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZHIBIAO YAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/08/16.

DEC 15, 22, 29, JAN 05, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037378600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROHAN CONSTRUCTION, 26 FOREST SIDE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KIERAN P. ROHAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/08/16.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/08/16.

DEC 15, 22, 29, JAN 05, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT A-037378900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DOWNTOWN GROCERY, 289 EDDY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GHAMOAN JAMIL ALI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/08/16.

DEC 15, 22, 29, JAN 05, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT A-037382600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LARK IN THE MORNING, 837 25TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ERIC AZUMI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/12/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/12/16.

DEC 15, 22, 29, JAN 05, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037350600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RICHARD GERVAIS COLLECTION, 1465 CUSTER AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RICHARD NORMAN GERVAIS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/17/16.

DEC 15, 22, 29, JAN 05, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037363600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MIKE’S, 505 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ZIPZAP HAIR INC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/26/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/29/16.

DEC 15, 22, 29, JAN 05, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037376800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FRESH GREEN, 1970 JERROLD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GRUBMARKET INC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/05/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/07/16.

DEC 15, 22, 29, JAN 05, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037376700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UX SOLUTIONS, 4257 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GREGORY WELLS INC

t

(CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/15/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/07/16.

DEC 15, 22, 29, JAN 05, 2017 COPYRIGHT NOTICE:

This constitutes actual lawful and constructive notice and declaration of the following facts, registration and copyright protections for the trade-name/trademark, Sheila Ann Blanc©, a private divine proportional trust and an original expression created on or about September 13, 1962, with all rights reserved, held by blanc,sheila ann©, for the Sheila Ann Blanc© Living Trust, domiciling near Sebastopol, California. Said common-law trade-name/trademarks may not be used, printed, duplicated, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, neither in whole nor in part, nor in any manner (including signature in existence by my hand) whatsoever, without the prior, express, written consent and acknowledgment of the Trust, hereinafter “Secured Party.” With the intent of being contractually bound, any juristic person, as well as the agent of said juristic person, assents, consents, and agrees that neither said juristic person, nor the agent of said juristic person, shall display, nor otherwise use in any manner, the common-law trade-name/trade-mark, nor the common-law copyright described herein, nor any derivative, variation, and/or spelling and printing of Sheila Ann Blanc©, including and not limited to all style, word order, abbreviation, punctuation, hyphen, font, color, derivatives, variations in the spelling, abbreviating, upper/lower case rendering and writing of said trade-name/ trade-mark. Secured Party neither assents, nor consents, nor agrees with, nor grants, nor implies any authorization for, any unauthorized use of tradename/trade-mark, and all unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Mutual Assent Implied and Express Contract Executed by Unauthorized Use of Secured Party’s Common Law-Copyrighted Property; Self-Executing Security Agreement in Event of Unauthorized Use of Secured Party’s Common Law-Copyrighted Property: By these terms, both the person and the agent of said person engaging in unauthorized us of copyrighted property, hereinafter jointly referred to as the “Interloper” does assent, consent, and agree that any use of the tradename/trademark, except the authorized use as set above constitutes unauthorized use, unauthorized reproduction, copyright infringement, and counterfeiting, of Secured Party’s common-law copyrighted property, is contractually binding upon said Third Party Interloper, securing an interest in said Interloper’s assets, land, and personal property for equal consideration and not less than $1,000,000.00, based on the estimated value of the secured trade-name/trade-mark at the time of this notice. Any person claiming an adverse interest, challenging, or rebutting the rights of the Secured Party may write to the Trust in care of: 7319 Witter Road Sebastopol, California 95472-9999, non domestic/without the USA.

DEC 22, 29, JAN 05, 12, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037387800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MARLEY BADSELF INSPECTIONS, 1390 MARKET ST #2606, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KAZEEM LAWAL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/15/16.

DEC 22, 29, JAN 05, 12, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037385100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: L & C MAINTENANCE, 1641 NEWCOMB AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NATAN ISAAC CALLEJAS GUZMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/12/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/14/16.

DEC 22, 29, JAN 05, 12, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037356800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: L T TRANSPORTATION, 430 PARIS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LUIS TORRES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/22/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/22/16.

DEC 22, 29, JAN 05, 12, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037379102

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INSTITUTE FOR FURTHER RESEARCH...; INSTITUTE FOR FURTHER RESEARCH; CENTER FOR LOOSE ENDS, 751 LOMBARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KARIN A. WEISS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/78. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/08/16.

DEC 22, 29, JAN 05, 12, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037357000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAMLO TRANSPORTATION, 138 PARIS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SAMUEL MEJIA LOPEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/22/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/22/16.

DEC 22, 29, JAN 05, 12, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037385500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHARLIE’S DRUG STORE, 1101 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NAHLA SHOMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/87.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/14/16.

DEC 22, 29, JAN 05, 12, 2016

Women’s ways

23

Time keeper

Holiday tunes

Out &About

21

O&A

19

20

Vol. 46 • No. 51 • December 22-28, 2016

www.ebar.com/arts

Gertrude Stein & Alice B. Toklas forever

by Richard Dodds

T

he late playwright Win Wells had considerable resources from which to draw as he wrote Gertrude Stein and a Companion, a play that imagines a reminiscing reunion between Stein and Alice B. Toklas shortly before Toklas’ death in 1967 and 21 years after Stein had died. Beginning performances Dec. 28, Wells’ play is the third offering in Theatre Rhino’s season.

See page 24 >>

David Wilson

Kathryn L. Wood, left, plays Gertrude Stein, Elaine Jennings is Alice B. Toklas, and Haley Bertelsen is the Young Girl in Gertrude Stein and a Companion, opening next week at Theatre Rhino.

Messiah returns

by Philip Campbell

A

fter two-and-a-half centuries, Handel’s mighty oratorio Messiah remains a perennial favorite for listeners and performers both professional and amateur the world over.

See page 18 >>

Conductor Patrick Dupre Quigley led the San Francisco Symphony.

Thomas (newcomer Corentin Fila) and Damien (Kacey Mottet Klein) in director Andre Techine’s Being 17.

Best films of 2016 (part 1)

by David Lamble

M

Courtesy SFS

y picks for Best Films of 2016 will arrive in two parts, and list 20 productions.

This was a good year for ambitious, relatively low-budget entries that dealt with the best and worst sides of human nature. These movies dealt with serious issues in ways that were entertaining, dramatically moving, and better at what they did than any competing medium.

See page 24 >>

JACQUELINE PATTON PHOTOGRAPHY

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

th e

: S E I V V I K S O A D K IL L H O L ID AY R

STARRING

LAUREN MOLINA AND NICK CEARLEY RANDY HARRISON

WITH SPECIAL GUEST

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DEC 22–23 A.C.T.'S STR AND THEATER

1127 MARKET STREET

<< Out There

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 22-28, 2016

t

Courtesy Adbusters

Adbusters magazine cover (Issue #127), summer 2016: resist the coming regime.

Resist! Resist!

by Roberto Friedman

SFGMC.ORG or (415) 392-4400

THE OFFICIAL AIRLINE OF SFGMC

th e

: S E I V V S KI JACQUELINE PATTON PHOTOGRAPHY

O A D K IL L H O L ID AY R

STARRING

LAUREN MOLINA AND NICK CEARLEY RANDY HARRISON

WITH SPECIAL GUEST

Literally stripping to their skivvies, performing hilarious mash-ups of pop songs and classics such as “Blue Christmas” on an array of quirky instruments, The Skivvies take on holiday music with such creativity and originality that you’ll feel like you’re hearing old standards for the first time.

“UNDIE ROCK, with a SOUPÇON OF BROADWAY” The New York Times

DEC 22–23 ACT-SF.ORG | 415.749.2228

A.C.T.'S STR AND THE ATER

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A

rtists, art-lovers, artisans!

Philanthropists, philanderers, philistines! Alphas & betas, tops & bottoms, butches & femmes, dominants & submissives! Join Out There in queer solidarity and popular resistance to the coming proto-fascist regime. Preserve the Arts & Culture, safeguard civil liberties, protect your friends & neighbors, protest imminent injustice!

Don’t let anyone normalize the

<<

Messiah

From page 17

Originally intended for the Easter season, the joyous message of hope and seemingly endless stream of memorable tunes gets most appreciation and countless performances at Yuletide. As with most inspired sacred music, you don’t have to be religious or even a believer to appreciate the transcendent beauty of the writing. For many, an annual hearing of Messiah has simply become an inevitable pleasurable holiday tradition.

The San Francisco Symphony has been warming a garlanded and festively decorated Davies Symphony Hall with varying performance editions of Handel’s masterwork every December for as long as anyone can remember. And this year, perhaps more than ever, as Jerry Herman said in Mame, “We need a little Christmas now.”

Patrick Dupre Quigley, making an exciting SFS appearance as conductor in recent performances, stressed the qualities that caused Messiah to create such a stir in the first place.

Exuding youthful poise and clear control, he mastered the dramatic arc of the narrative strikingly and blew the dust off pages that often sound overfamiliar. Precise but flexible and intensely alert, Quigley was exceptionally well-served by a fine quartet of vocal soloists, all making their SFS debuts.

Quigley’s stated intention was to mix performance traditions, allowing personal interpretation and ornamentation for singers and lively manipulation of rhythms and notes for instrumentalists. The results gave a real jolt to the story and made one of the most successful blends of “authentic” and modern interpretations I can recall. We should have parked our expectations at the door. This was a welcome and

political abomination about to transpire. There’s nothing normative about an EPA chief dismantling environmental protections. There’s nothing normative about a Sec. of Education gutting public schools. Nothing normal about a Sec. of Exxon-Mobil.

Or a Dept. of Throwing the Election by the FBI, KGB & KKK. We could go on, but so could you.

Our battle plan: Verbalize & educate. Identify greed & avarice. Shame the bigots.

Banish the ignorant. Hate on homophobes, racists & white nationalists. Denounce billionaire kleptocrats. Trip up opportunists. Disarm generals. Call out corporate statists. Read beads on climate-change deniers. Heap approbation on killers of Medicare, Social Security & what’s left of a safety net for public welfare.

Now is the time, red lights are flashing! Home alarms are going off! Figure out your part. Plan your own resistance. Write your own manifesto. Do what you can to save yourself, your country & your planet. Oh & er, happy hols. to you & yrs. from OT!t

wonderfully fresh enactment that satisfied both purists and first-timers. Even the many kids in the audience, all dressed up for the occasion and dutifully heeding their parents’ admonitions to silence, remained visibly engaged throughout.

Director Ragnar Bohlin’s SFS Chorus was, of course, a prime source of energy, and the ensemble responded to the conductor’s impetus with rich depth and crisp articulation. Just because the eclectic text is sung in English doesn’t mean it will be easily understandable. No worries here – listeners had little need to refer to the libretto printed in the program as every word was enunciated perfectly.

ornamentation added attractive and appropriate novelty.

Christian Van Horn looks and sounds every inch the impressive operatic bass. He successfully managed to stay within the bounds of concert-singing without losing any theatrical impact. His range allows for the occasional dramatic shout without sounding harsh.

For his really rather spectacular SFS debut, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo immediately riveted the capacity crowd with the surprising force of his unique voice.

We raved about his endearing and highly athletic performance in the acclaimed San Francisco Opera production of Handel’s Partenope in 2015, and he reminded us of our initial awe and praise with singing of exceptional beauty and strength.

Up in the maestro’s box, composer Jake Heggie looked on with equal admiration. Costanzo has already appeared in one Heggie opera to a libretto by Terrence McNally, Great Scott. Could he be in line for the SFO’s West Coast premiere of Heggie’s adaptation of It’s a Wonderful Life in 2018? If there isn’t a part for countertenor, maybe the other soloists are under rightful consideration.

The orchestra also responded to Quigley’s lead with a delicious blend of sprightliness and weight. Bowing lightly, the full string section added that crisp edge we have come to know from authentic instruments without sacrificing any of the luxurious tone allowed by modern violins.

Harpsichord contributions played by Robin Sutherland were subtly audible and nimbly executed.

It was harder to discern Jonathan Dimmock’s contributions from the organ, but he still added to the overriding sense of fresh involvement.

Needless to say, star player Mark Inouye nailed his solo during the glorious bass air, “The trumpet shall sound.”t

Matthu Placek

Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo was among the soloists.

The same gratifying distinctness with the words was shared by the vocal soloists. Soprano Lauren Snouffer instantly secured a place in memory with a purity of tone that imbued emotion in even the most radiant of moments. Her hint of liquid vibrato added a lovely personality.

Tenor Zachary Wilder easily captured attention with his mixture of dramatic intensity and clarion sound. His judicious

t

Theatre>>

December 22-28, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Change happens

by Richard Dodds

W

ant a slang term for “menstruation?” I got a million of ’em. (Or at least Google does.)

And how about some jargon for “menopause?” Here we go from such crudely colorful descriptors as “ride the cotton pony” and “surf the crimson wave” for the former to the discretion of “change of life” and the clinically depressing “ovarian failure” for the latter. It’s all ha-ha when a woman is fertile and hushed tones when that disappears. Sandra Tsing Loh proffers new ways to conceive of this biological inevitability, and how she comes to this revelation is the journey taken by The Madwoman in the Volvo.

The performer, author, essayist, and NPR personality is that madwoman, and the mad tumult in her life corresponded with the menopausal period sending her into her “egg-free, cage-free” years. Loh first documented this crossing in a 2014 book also titled The Madwoman in the Volvo, which carried the subtitle My Year of Raging Hormones. Collaborating with Lisa Peterson, an associate director at Berkeley Rep, they developed the piece at Sundance before debuting it in Southern California earlier this year.

Loh has usually performed as a monologist, but here enlists the aid of two additional performers who play themselves in a meta-theatrical way, as well as both children and grownups who weave in and out of the tale from Loh’s childhood into marriage and motherhood and then to marital upheaval, bringing us to the present day. The style of the 90-minute show is part standup, part monologue, part theatrical fragments, and part suggestions of a radio play. It’s a quilt with some of the panels forced to fit into the overall pattern, and sags develop toward the final moments, but it can be enjoyable both as a crazy quilt and a cozy comforter that men can wrap themselves up in as well.

In a condensed synopsis, this is Loh’s story of reaching her mid-40s, and with the onset of menopause, realizing that her evolutionary function of motherhood is no longer

needed. The kind of autopilot that has kept her in a marriage of 20 years that produced two daughters has been extinguished, and an impetuous affair leads to the dissolution of her marriage after a fateful trip to Burning Man. But what promised to be a road to new freedoms is instead a thorny path leading at first to a shabby apartment and lots of regretful questions.

Are we having fun yet? It may sound unlikely, but Madwoman manages to make the most of the funny lines, moments, and the kind of good anecdotes that stem from bad reality. Peterson’s unconventional staging on a set with little more than a few tables and chairs gives room for the freeform script to amble where it might, and the audience-friendly Loh gets a mighty comic assist from the two actressfriends she has asked to take part in what is scripted to look at times like an unscripted affair.

Caroline Aaron plays one of the friends, and it’s likely you’ll recognize her distinctive look and voice as a featured actress favored by Woody Allen, Mike Nichols, Nora Ephron, and many other directors. Aaron is a brassy steamroller who can turn baby soft when that’s needed. In contrast to Aaron, wispy Shannon Holt plays Loh’s fellow gal pal, who gets laughs with an adorably addled personality and facial expressions that need no words to draw chuckles.

With lifespans what they are now, perhaps half the women in the world are at, near, or post menopause, Loh tells us. Reinvention of life’s Act II for contemporary women is called for, something Loh radically embraced with mixed results. But still you know the show has to provide a final message of uplift.

What’s interesting is that in menopause, Loh says, a woman’s hormone levels return to what they were when she was a preteen girl.

“Instead of ‘the change,’” she says, “it should be called ‘the return.’”t The Madwoman in the Volvo will run through Jan. 15. Tickets are $60-$75. Call (510) 647-2949 or go to berkeleyrep.org.

MEDIA SALES PROFESSIONALS BAR Media, Inc., publisher of the Bay Area Reporter, America’s longest continuouslypublished and highest circulation LGBT newspaper, has an immediate opening for a qualified sales professional to join our sales team. Working from our office located in central San Francisco, you’ll seek out new advertiser relationships from small to medium-sized businesses located in the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout California.

In this role you will identify and build solid relationships with advertising clients, helping them to market their business to the largest audience of Bay Area LGBT consumers. When appropriate, you’ll also have the opportunity to represent our print media partners such as the local titles SF Weekly and the SF Examiner, and the LGBT titles in the Los Angeles and Sacramento markets.

The ideal candidate will possess prior media sales experience, specifically with print/ online media in the Bay Area, have strong entreprenuerial/prospecting skills, be unafraid of cold calling, networking, and have an ease in building rapport both in person and via telephone. Additional skills in social media, online ad serving sofware, copywriting/design, etc. highly desirable but not required.

This full-time position offers a generous compensation package consisting of salary, plus (uncapped) commissions, and bonuses. Paid health, 401K plan, etc. Qualified applicants, please email cover letter and resume to advertising@ebar.com

I am the future of the LGBT community.

I’m gay.

I’m 22 years old and I’m an exchange student from Spain. Going to college here means a fun time, lots of hard work and getting to see new things.

It also means a chance to really be myself. My parents are supportive of my sexuality, and my host family here is a couple with two teenage boys. Nobody cares if they’re gay or straight. I’m excited to be part of a world where that can be true.

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

Deborah Robinson

Sandra Tsing Loh, left, Shannon Holt, and Caroline Aaron perform in Loh’s autobiographical The Madwoman in the Volvo at Berkeley Rep. The person depicted here is a model. Their image is being used for illustrative purposes only.

<< Out&About

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 22-28, 2016

Cloud Forests @ SF Botanical Gardens

Out &About

O&A

See beautiful floral and foliage displays, trees and plants in various beautiful gardens specific to region.

Daily walking tours and more. Free$15. Tours, lectures, classes and more.

Open daily, 7:30am-sunset. Golden Gate Park. 661-1316. www.sfbotanicalgarden.org

Curious Contraptions @ Exploratorium

Thu 22 The Golden Girls @ Victoria Theatre

by Jim Provenzano

Thu 22

Cinderella @ Herbst Theatre San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company and African American Shakespeare Company’s new production of the classic fable, with campy drag stepsisters. $20-$40.

8pm. Dec. 23: 2pm & 8pm. Dec. 24: 11am & 3pm. 401 Van Ness Ave. www.african-americanshakes.org

Classic & New Films @ Castro Theatre Dec 22: It’s a Wonderful Life (5pm, 8pm). Dec. 24: San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (5pm, 7pm, 9pm) $35$40. Dec. 26: Sing-Along The Sound of Music, various times daily thru Jan 1. $11-$16. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

The Golden Girls @ Victoria Theatre Heklina, D’Arcy Drollinger, Matthew Martin and Holotta Tymes return in Christmas episodes of the hilarious and popular drag stage adaptation of the hit sitcom about retired women in Florida. $30. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Dec. 23. 2961 16th St. at Mission. www.goldengirlssf.com

The Last Christmas @ PianoFight Daniel Heath and Christy Crowley’s Holiday Action Musical pits Santa Claus, Jesus and a pop princess against Big Oil’s plan to drill at the North Pole. $20-$50. Thu-Sat 7pm.

Thru Dec. 23. 144 Taylor St. www.pianofight.com

Mittens and Mistletoe @ Dance Mission Theater Sweet Can Productions’ annual Winter Circus Cabaret promises acrobatic and clown talents for the whole family. $18-$65. Wed-Sun most shows 2pm.

Fri 8pm. Thru Dec. 31. 3316 24th St. www.sweetcanproductions.com

Peter White Christmas Show @ Yoshi’s Oakland Contemporary jazz concert of holiday songs. $39. 8pm & 10pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Scrooge in Love @ Marines’ Memorial Theatre Jason Graae stars in 42nd Street Moon’s production of Grossman, Blair & Poole’s fun musical about what happens to Ebeneezer Scrooge after Christmas. Thru Dec. 24. 609 Sutter St. www.42ndStMoon.org

The Skivvies @ Strand Theatre ACT presents the award-winning undie-rock comedy duo (Lauren Molina and Nick Cearley) with special guest Randy Harrison (Queer as Folk, Cabaret) in Holiday Roadkill, a night of seasonal parody songs. $35-$75.

7pm. Also Dec. 23, 7pm & 10pm. 1127 Market St. www.act-sf.org

Smuin Ballet @ YBCA Michael Smuin’s The Christmas Ballet is performed by the popular local dance company. $25-$70. Thu-Sun 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Dec. 24.

700 Howard St. www.smuinballet.org www.ybca.org

White Christmas @ Golden Gate Theatre The classic Irving Berlin musical returns for the holidays, with lavish sets and production numbers. $30-$120. TueFri, 7:30pm. Wed 2pm. Sat & Sun 12pm & 5:30pm. Thru Dec. 24. 1 Golden Gate at Market. www.shnsf.com

Fri 23

946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips @ Berkeley Rep Michael Morpurgo and Emma Rice’s rousing musical play about a seaside British family whose house is invaded

by WWII U.S. soldiers after D-Day. $29-$97. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Jan. 15. Roda Theatre, 201 Addison St., Berkeley. www.berkeleyrep.org

Avenue Q @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Lopez & Marx and Whitty’s hilarious puppets-for-adults musical comedy returns, with two different casts, and a New Year’s Eve show, too. $20-$60.

Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Extended thru Jan. 22. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

Chanticleer @ St. Ignatius Church The Grammy-winning a cappella men’s vocal ensemble performs their holiday concert. $35-$75. 8pm. 650 Parker St. Also Dec. 23. (and Dec 18 in berkeley) www.chanticleer.org

A Christmas Carol @ Geary Theatre American Conservatory Theatre’s popular annual large-scale stage adaptation (by Cary Perloff and Paul Walsh) of Charles Dickens’ holiday story about Ebeneezer Scrooge. $25$120. pm. Tue-Sat 7pm. Wed, Fri Sat 2pm. Sun 1pm & 5:30pm. Thru Dec. 24. 415 Geary St. www.act-sf.org

Fool La La! @ The Marsh Berkeley Unique Derique’s annual kid-friendly clown solo show. $12-$100. Daily at 2pm. Thru Dec. 30. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. www.themarsh.org

The Madwoman in the Volvo @ Berkeley Rep NPR personality and best-selling memoirist Sandra Tsing Loh takes the driver’s seat and slams the engine into overdrive in her hilarious, enlightening, and totally candid road trip through the triple M’s: middleage, menopause, and motherhood. $60-$75. Wed & Sun 7pm. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Feb 15.

2025 Addison St., Berkeley. www.berkeleyrep.org

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley Shotgun Players perform Edward Albee’s classic drama about disgruntled married college town couples. $25-$40. In repertory thru Jan. 22. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley.

(510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Sat 24

A Billion Buddhas @ Asian Art Museum A Billion Buddhas: The Awakened Cosmos of Himalyan Buddhism (thru April 9). Other exhibits include The Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine Ally, Foe (thru Jan. 15), Worshipping Women: Power and Devotion in Indian Painting (thru Mar. 26). Free-$25. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. 200 Larkin St. 581-3500. www.asianart.org

All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50 @ Oakland Museum Multimedia exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Oaklandbased civil rights and community group; thru Feb. 12. Free/$15. Reg. hours Wed-Sat 11am-5pm (Fri til 9pm). 1000 Oak St., Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

Approaching American Abstraction @ SF Museum of Modern Art See the restaged installations and new exhibits of Pop, Abstract and classic Modern art at the renovated and visually amazing museum, with two extra floors, a new additional Howard Street entrance, cafe and outdoor gardens. Free-$25. 10am8pm. 151 Third St. www.sfmoma.org

Butterflies and Blooms @ Conservatory of Flowers Beautiful floral displays, plants for sale, and docent tours. Starting Nov. 17, the live butterflies exhibit; thru June 30. Tue-Sun 10am-4pm. $2-$8.

Free for SF residents. 100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park, 831-2090. www.conservatoryofflowers.org

LGBTQ Histories from the WWII Home Front @ Rosie the Riveter Visitor Education Center, Richmond Park indoor exhibit that showcases the lives of historic LGBT people. Open daily 10am-5pm. 1414 Harbour Way South, Suite 3000, Richmond. www.roseitheriveter.org

SF Gay Men’s Chorus @ Castro Theatre The chorus’ annual holiday concert, Home for the Holidays, features guest soloist Melody Moore. $25-$40. 5pm, 7pm & 9pm. 429 Castro St. sfgmc.org castrotheatre.com

SF Hiking Club @ Mt. Tam Join GLBT hikers of the SF Hiking Club for an 11-mile strenuous hike on Mt. Tam. This hike has everything; views, every Mt. Tam microclimate, streams, and good karma for circumnavigation of SF’s nearest mountain. Bring water, lunch, sturdy hiking boots, layers, hat, sunscreen.

Carpool meets 8:45 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. (510) 926-9220. www.sfhiking.com

She Loves Me @ SF Playhouse The lighthearted musical by Masteroff, Bock and Harnick follows a comedic misadventures of a straight couple looking for love over the holidays. $30-$125. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm, Sun 2pm. Thru Jan. 14.

450 Post St. www.sfplayhouse.org

Space Program: Europa @ YBCA

Enjoy a kid-friendly free day at the museum (11am-4pm), with exhibits about Jewish culture, including Lamp of the Covenant: Dave Lane and Pour Crever by Trimpin, Hardly Strictly Warren Hellman. Lectures and gallery talks as well. Free (members)-$12.

Fri-Tue 11am-5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 6557800. www.thecjm.org

Mon 26 SF Hiking Club @ Mission Peak

Join GLBT hikers of the SF Hiking Club for an 11-mile hike to the top of Mission Peak above Fremont. Carpool meets 8:30 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. (510) 599-4056. www.sfhiking.com

Unearthed @ California Academy of Sciences Exhibits and planetarium shows with various live, interactive and installed exhibits about animals, plants and the earth; new exhibit, From Stone Age to Space Age, showcases minerals through time. Special events each week, with adult nightlife parties many Thursday nights. $20-$35. Mon-Sat 9:30am-5pm. Sun 11am-5pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park.

379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Tue 27

10 Percent @ Comcast David Perry’s online and cable interviews with notable local and visiting LGBT people, broadcast through the week. 7pm. Thu-Tue 11 & 11:30am & 10:30pm. www.ComcastHometown.com

Fabian Echevarria @ Strut Fotohodo, an exhibit of the local gay photographer’s work. 470 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

Viewpoints @ Jenkins Johnson Gallery

Tom Sachs NASA-styled installation takes you to Jupiter’s moon. $10. Thru Jan. 15, 2017. 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Wish Upon a Star: Pinocchio @ Walt Disney Family Museum

Wed 28

Fun exhibit all about the Disney classic about a puppet who longs to be a real boy; thru Jan. 9. Free (members)-$20.

104 Montgomery St., The Presidio.

345-6800. www.waltdisney.org

XXXmas Eve Gathering @ Center for Sex & Culture Bring a gift for the White Elephant exchange, and celebrate the holiday with kinky people. 4pm-7pm. 1349 Mission St. www.sexandculture.org

Cartoon Crafts @ Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center The Cartoon Art Museum hosts a Watercolor New Year’s Cards for Adults workshop, with hands-on instruction and inspiration to help you create unique cards. $35. 18+.

1pm-3pm. 275 5th St. https://guestlist.co/events/442821

Gertrude Stein and a Companion @ Eureka Theatre Theatre Rhinoceros’ new production of Win Wells’ award-winning play about the lesbian poet and her partner, Alice B. Toklas. $15-$40.

Wed-Sat 8pm (no show Dec. 31). Also Jan. 7 & 8 at 3pm. Thru Jan. 8. 215 Jackson St. www.TheRhino.org

The Unseen World of the Tenderloin @ Tenderloin Museum The Unseen World of the Tenderloin: Rare Historic Photographs 1907-71.

Thru Jan. 16. 398 Eddy St. 351-1912. www.tenderloinmuseum.org

Native Son @ Marin Theatre Company, Mill Valley Nambi E. Kelley’s stage adaptation of Richard Wright’s classic novel stars Jerod Haynes, who originated the role in the Chicago world premiere.

Previews; opens, Jan 24. $22-$60.

Tue-Sun 7:30pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Feb. 12. 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. www.marintheatre.org

Community Free Day @ Contemporary Jewish Museum

Group exhibit of abstract and conceptual works by Romare Bearden, Tony Lewis, Aubrey Williams and 6 other artists. Thru Jan 14. 464 Sutter St. www.jenkinsjohnsongallery.com

Lois Tema

Sanity Claus

M

ost of you aren’t even in town this week, but for those who are, festive arts events await. For nightlife, see On the Tab listings.

New exhibit of 20 mechanical sculptures by 12 artists, along with interactive science displays. $20$30. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. Pier 15, Embarcadero at Green St. www.exploratoratorium.edu

Sun 25

t

Thu 29 Fri 23 Avenue Q @ New Conservatory Theatre Center

Skin Deep: The Art of Tattoo @ Katz Snyder Gallery Exhibit of art and photos about tattoo art by 20 regional artists. Thru Jan. 20. Jewish Community Center, 3200 California St. www.jccsf.org

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Fine Art>>

December 22-28, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Time-traveling in five channels

by Sura Wood

T

he experience that would most closely approximate The Refusal of Time, William Kentridge’s immersive, five-channel multimedia video installation at SFMOMA, would be literally climbing into a movie and merging with its fantasy. The South African artist, who has directed operas by Mozart and Shostakovich in addition to forays into sculpture, printmaking and animation, brings a profusion of artistic disciplines and a kaleidoscope of associations that stop just this side of chaos in his most accomplished installation to date.

Originally commissioned in 2012 by dOCUMENTA (13) in Germany, where it was presented in a deserted railroad depot, the 30-minute “performance” incorporates South African dancers, sculpture, acting, reading, film, arcane texts, maps of Africa, video projections animated by the artist’s drawings, live action, clocks with hands spinning backward or forward, an eclectic soundscape and caterwauling. Kentridge salutes multiple histories while simultaneously deconstructing them, including silent cinema, vaudeville, the standardization of time and opposition to it, and the perils of the industrial age. The museum space is set up like a theatrical production with the public as part of the stage.

Chairs are bolted to the floor in a haphazard arrangement, several steel megaphones are positioned on stands, and images and films, projected on five screens, cover the walls on three sides of a large, highceilinged room as chapters end

electrical coils that recall the and reset. Saw horses, stacks deluded Dr. Frankenstein; of wood planks and brown diagrams are drawn and dispaper laying about give the appear before our eyes; vistas place the raw transient feel of the Milky Way are accomof a studio workshop – and panied by pontifications on what could more of a workthe speed of light and sound in-progress than time itself? waves; cryptic messages like At the center of the instal“In Praise of Bad Clocks,” “He lation is its beating heart: a that fled his fate” and “Give us wooden “breathing machine” Back our Sun” are scrawled named the “elephant.” A cross on the pages of books; and a between an organ and an oil bald black woman dances and rig with pulleys and bellows, tosses papers hither and yon in it’s in ceaseless rhythmic moa room with an old-fashioned tion, pumping night and day bathtub. In the rousing finale, like the faceless, robotic unan oom-pah-pah band heavy derground work force that fuon the tuba and squeezebox eled the futuristic city of Fritz pipes up as a religious revival Lang’s dystopian silent classic or New Orleans-style funeral Metropolis. The inspiration procession, represented by a for the sculpture, designed by parade of silhouetted shapes, Jonas Lundquist and Sabine makes its way around the Theunissen, who are among William Kentridge room, playing instruments, at least a dozen contributors toting that bathtub and pushcredited on the project, came William Kentridge, The Refusal of Time (still) (2012), jointly owned by the San from a couple of sources: Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. ing and pulling see-saw carts on wheels. The passage is plans in the 1870s to install exhilarating even as it calls pressurized steampunk conmodern, mechanized world, time a Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov’s up brutal memories of slavery and traptions under the streets of Paris is a relative concept. There’s Royal 1929 technically innovative docuEuro-colonialism. that would regularly pump air and Observatory Time, down time, mentary chronicling the pulsing In a brief coda, a man in a white synchronize the city’s clocks, and swing time, your own sweet time, machinery of Soviet life, and the clown suit, inflated like a balloon, a passage from Charles Dickens’ and any old time you choose. Not out-of-this-world, under-the-sea, dances the shuffle with his girl1854 novel Hard Times where the coincidentally, the piece opens man-in-the-moon fantasias of friend until a placard with the word author describes a factory machine with a single metronome, enlarged French illusionist/film director “Finish,” written upside-down, that moved “monotonously up and and multiplying into many, each George Melies, a constructor of suddenly appears. A dog barked at down, like the head of an elephant ticking at a different speed. The worlds and a hero of Kentridge’s the end, right on cue; it turned out in a state of melancholy madness,” entire enterprise, from its score by who pioneered handmade special that it wasn’t part of the show, but it a metaphor for civilization’s futile composer Philip Miller, a frequent effects in the early 1900s. could’ve been.t attempts to dominate and conquer collaborator known for melding Though its ultimate meaning time. disparate musical traditions, to may be illusive, the installation and The genesis of the piece, howThe Refusal of Time was jointly its imagery of fledgling scientific its rollicking circuitry of ideas work ever, evolved from discussions acquired by SFMOMA and New investigation, has a turn-of-theon the brain on a subliminal level.

York’s Metropolitan Museum in between the artist and Harvard 20th-century gestalt. Kentridge We witness scenes in antiquated lab2013, a friendly, shared custody science historian Peter Galison, in obliquely references silent-film oratories where wild-eyed scientists agreement that should benefit particular about Einstein’s conclassics of the era such as Charlie in white lab coats orchestrate crude visitors on both coasts. clusion that, in the context of a Chaplin’s Modern Times, Man with experiments with bellows and spiral Through April 2; sfmoma.org.

Best LGBTQ nonfiction of 2016

by Brian Bromberger

2016

will go down as the Year of the Memoir, with seven of these top 10 books having some autobiographical component. Most titles document past political and cultural struggles that allowed the LGBTQ community to enjoy the rights we have today, and remember heroes who made those rights possible.

10. Robert Mapplethorpe: The Photographs by Paul Martineau and Britt Salveson. Though dead for over a quarter-century, photographer Mapplethorpe remains a scandalous provocateur. With the extraordinary collection acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the LA County Museum of Art, Martineau and Salvesen invite us to reconsider Mapplethorpe as an artist, providing a rich selection covering the remarkable range of his work, including the notorious S/M pictures but also the less wellknown landscapes. Five in-depth essays explore sexuality and identity.

With an illustrated chronology of his life and art, the book is both authoritative and indispensable.

(Honorable mention arts book: The Selected Letters of John Cage, edited

by Laura Kuhn.)

9. Queer Virtue: What LGBT People Know About Life and Love and How It Can Revitalize Christianity by Rev. Elizabeth Edman.

Normally books about homosexuality and Christianity are apologetic in nature, trying to reconcile their differences, but in a clever reversal, openly lesbian Episcopal priest Elizabeth Edman explores what queer experience can teach Christianity.

She effectively argues that queerness has a moral center not at odds with the core tenets of Judeo-Christian belief, by showing how everyday

experiences of LGBT people such as pride, coming out, authenticity, and hospitality might invigorate contemporary spiritual practice.

(Honorable mention religion book: Struggling in Good Faith: LGBTQI Inclusion from 13 American Religious Perspectives, edited by Rabbi Mychal Copeland.)

trailblazing reporter Jeff Schmalz.

Schmalz was closeted as he climbed the Times hierarchy before collapsing with an AIDS-related seizure in 1990. Returning from the brink of death, his sole beat became AIDS as a human interest story. His profiles and first-person articles promoted inclusion on LGBT issues. This

8. Making Out in the Mainstream: GLAAD and the Politics of Responsibility by Vincent Doyle. A cogent analysis of GLAAD’s evolution from a militant grassroots organization, with direct-action demonstrations against homophobia, into a national media-advocacy lobbying group, giving out glitzy awards to celebrities, with a market-oriented approach. (Honorable mention academic book: Homintern: How Gay Culture Liberated the Modern World by Gregory Woods.)

7. Dying Words: The AIDS Reporting of Jeff Schmalz and How It Transformed The New York Times

by Samuel G. Freedman and Kerry Donahue. Not the bastion of proLGBT coverage it is today, The New York Times was long homophobic.

But as regular Times columnist Freedman reveals, that atmosphere came tumbling down due to

pastiche book of interviews, articles, reminiscences, even a radio documentary, is superb. (Honorable mention history: Pride Parades: How a Parade Changed the World

by Katherine McFarland Bruce.)

6. Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited

by Philip Eade. A commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Waugh’s death. Great 20th-century English novelist Waugh is best-known for his masterpiece about a decaying aristocratic family, Brideshead Revisited. At Oxford he cultivated a life-long passion for alcohol, and for a decade homosexual affairs, including a baron who became the inspiration for Brideshead’s Lord Sebastian Flyte. Waugh’s novels skewered the self-centered foibles of the wealthy upper-class, “bright young things.”

But he became a reactionary, disillusioned religious snob. (Honorable mention biography: Cursed Legacy:

The Tragic Life of Klaus Mann by Frederic Spotts.)

5. One of These Things First: A Memoir by Steven Gaines. The surreal adventures of a gay 15-year-old Jewish boy in Brooklyn in the early 1960s. Ashamed of his homosexuality, he attempts suicide, then convinces his psychiatrist to send him to the celebrated Payne Whitney Clinic, “the Harvard of psychiatric hospitals.” He encounters wealthy neurotics and oddballs, including the Broadway producer Richard Halliday, husband of Broadway star Mary Martin. Never has a mental ward seemed so much fun.

(Honorable mention memoir: Saving Alex: When I Was Fifteen I Told My Mormon Parents I Was Gay and That’s When My Nightmare Began by Alex Cooper with Joanna Brooks.)

4. Gilded Razor by Sam Lansky.

Rebounding from the divorce of his self-absorbed parents, Lansky accompanies his father to NYC to lead an exciting party lifestyle and attend elite college-prep Dwight School.

There he discovers crystal meth, prescription drugs, and unsafe sex with older men. Several attempts at recovery, including bootcamp rehab in Utah and a psych ward in New Orleans, culminate in sobriety at 19 in a SF 12-step program, leaving the reader exhausted. (Honorable mention real-life horror: Boy Erased: A Memoir (ex-gay) by Garrard Conley.)

3. When We Rise: My Life in the Movement by Cleve Jones. In this love song to SF, Jones charts the rise of the LGBT movement in the 1970s, its partying, dancing, drugs, and uninhibited sexual freedom, but also the building of a community, amassing political clout.

The cornerstone of his life would be working with Harvey Milk, whose murder in 1978 made Jones an activist. Stricken with HIV, he had the idea of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, commemorating thousands who died of the disease. This unvarnished, uplifting, opinionated memoir is a testament to Jones’ courage. He never allows obstacles to stop his quest for equality.

2. Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case For Marriage Equality by Jim Obergefell and Debbie Cenziper. For Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case that established marriage equality in all 50 states, it all came down to love. In 1992 on their third date, he fell in love with John Arthur in homophobic Cincinnati. Later, when Arthur was dying of ALS, they decided to wed, chartering a plane to another state to transport Arthur. Their civil rights attorney Al Gerhardstein showed them that Obergefell would not be listed on the death certificate as the surviving spouse, which outraged and inspired them to fight Ohio not sanctioning their marriage. Not just a page-turning memoir, but a historic document on a landmark event.

1. How To Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS by David France. The definitive history of the successful battle to halt the AIDS epidemic. France tells the story of ACT UP activists, who protested to develop and gain access to new experimental drugs that turned AIDS from a death sentence to a manageable disease, forcing reform in the nation’s disease-fighting agencies.

We relive the rage, despair, chaos, and bravery of that era. Not only the best read of 2016, but tentatively the best LGBT nonfiction book of the decade.t

<< Music

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 22-28, 2016

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Box-setting for the holidays

by Jason Victor Serinus

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s I type, announcements arrive of more repackaged, sometimes remastered classical box sets that are guaranteed to bring joy to music-lovers. Here is a very personal selection of some of the choicest offerings of 2016.

Fritz Wunderlich: Complete Studio Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon (32 CDs). Everything the great tenor recorded for DG, Philips, Decca and Polydor is included in this box. That means six discs of sacred music (the Karajan Beethoven Missa solemnis and Haydn Die Schöpfung amongst them); two discs of opera aria excerpts; complete operas by Berg, Monteverdi, and Mozart, along with highlights from operas by Lortzing, Tchaikovsky, and Verdi; lieder by Schubert, Schumann, and Beethoven; and five discs of popular German song. Why Wunderlich recorded so much before he died 50 years ago is simple: his voice was so wonderful, and his expression so pure, that everyone wanted to hear him again and again.

Dutilleux Orchestral Works: Seattle Symphony, Ludovic Morlot (3 CDs). Herein you will discover an extraordinary musical language whose wondrous colors and attention to timbre confirm Dutilleux as the rightful successor to Debussy and Ravel. Seattle Symphony has risen to international prominence thanks to the efforts of Music Director Ludovic Morlot, who studied with Dutilleux. His recording of the Violin Concerto L’arbre des songes with Augustin Hadelich won a deserved Grammy.

Rostropovich, Mutter, Upshaw, and Fleming are some of the artists who were so swayed by Dutilleux’s genius that they asked him to compose for them.

Schubert Lieder: Matthias Goerne (12 CDs). All the Schubert recordings the great baritone has made for Harmonia Mundi include his more mature takes on Winterreise, Die schöne Müllerin, and Schwanengesang. An indispensable alternative to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s interpretations of this repertoire, by someone who studied with him and shares his gift for profundity, but who approaches the songs with a different sensibility.

Music@Menlo Live: Schubert 1-8 (8 CDs). Superb artists, including the Dover and Escher String Quartets; vocalists Joelle Harvey and Nikolay Borchev; and pianists Jeffrey Kahane and Juko Pohjonen perform some of the most beloved chamber music by Schubert and others whose music is related to his.

Some of the pairings on this journey are fascinating.

Leontyne Price: Prima Donna Assoluta (22 CDs). Mississippiborn soprano Leontyne Price (b.

1927) made her opera-house debut at San Francisco Opera in 1957 in gay composer Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites. Before that, she performed in a Broadway run of gay composer Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts, toured in Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess, and was championed by gay composers Samuel Barber and Lou Harrison. In addition to being a member of an oppressed minority with whom many of us had an innate sympathy, she had one of the most sensual, soaring, and dramatic lyric voices of the last 100 years.

Now for the first time, you can hear Price in all her glory, surrounded by superb casts, in remastered operas

by Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, and Bizet recorded in the prime years of 196272. Required listening includes the Carmen with Corelli, the second Aida with Domingo and Bumbry,

and the Il trovatore with Domingo and Milnes.

Beethoven: The Symphonies: Herbert von Karajan, Berliner Philharmoniker (Pure Audio Bluray). The entire 1963 set, remastered and available on a single Blu-ray disc. We are talking about one of the classic stereo interpretations of all time, set down before period-instrument scholarship and practicealtered tempos.

Elizabeth Schwarzkopf: The Complete Recitals 1952-1974 (31 CDs). Remastered in 24/96, all her recitals for EMI. These include her famed live Wolf recital with Furtwängler in Salzburg, and the 1967 Homage to Gerald Moore with de los Angeles and Fischer-Dieskau.

Partly due to the dominance of her husband, EMI producer Walter Legge, Schwarzkopf became the dominant soprano lieder special-

in 1976 at the Avignon Festival, the course of modern music was altered. Here for the first time on DVD is the 2012-14 production co-commissioned by UC Berkeley, with the Philip Glass Ensemble conducted by Michael Riesman, choreography by Lucinda Childs (who played the lead in the original production), and direction/set design

by Wilson. Fittingly, the production began its run in Montpellier, France, and was recorded in that country’s Théâtre du Châtelet in 2014. Grab three bowls of popcorn, a joint, and whatever else you need, and prepare to enter an alternate universe.

Cello Stories: The Cello in the 17th and 18th Centuries (5 CD). As much care seems to have been lavished on this handsome volume as on many of the period-instruments sets from the wonderful Jordi Savall.

With text by Marc Vanscheeuwijck,

ist of the postwar era. The voice is like no other, and the sensitivity to nuance and meaning alternately maddening and breathtaking. The second volume of this set, with remastered versions of Schwarzkopf ’s earlier commercial material, is just out as well.

Vivarte 60 CD Collection Vol. 2 (60 CDs) The second installment of the complete period instrument recordings on the Sony Vivarte label

by Tafelmusik, Huelgas Ensemble, L’Archibudelli, Gustav Leonhardt, the Kuijkens, and Jos van Immerseel. Bach, Brahms, Brumel, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Schütz, Buxtehude and others in some of the definitive performances of the last 25 years.

Philip Glass & Robert Wilson: Einstein on the Beach (2 DVDs).

When this game-changing opera/ musical theater work premiered

Les Basses Réunies under Bruno Cocset begin with the origins of the cello repertoire, and extend through Bach to Geminiani and Boccherini.

A natural for period-instrument aficionados.

Mozart 225 (200 CDs). In honor of the 225th anniversary of Mozart’s death at age 35, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon and the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation have issued a whopping 24 lb. box of recordings and commentary. Only 15,000 copies of this box set, which includes 240 hours of music and two hardbound books, have been issued. Everything Mozart composed, including the Handel and Bach arrangements, over 100 fragments, completions by other composers, works of doubtful attribution, 30 CDs of alternate (historic) performances, and two discs of newly recorded periodinstrument interpretations. Wow.t

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Books>>

December 22-28, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

Stage-to-screen fun & follies

by John F. Karr

H

ere’s a new book that’s bound to beguile musical buffs.

Ethan Mordden’s When Broadway Went to Hollywood (Oxford University Press; $29.95) details, with the author’s usual deep research and enviable style, Broadway’s mostly masochistic relationship with Hollywood. Mordden’s witty descriptions, succinct summations and wealth of new-to-me facts proclaim once again his indisputable position as the Broadway musical’s most eloquent and erudite essayist.

Mordden mentions Jeanette McDonald’s “notoriously Turkish diction,” and says Kenny Baker is “pleasantly empty.” Of The Goldwyn Follies, he writes that “The Goldwyn Folly might be a better title for this mishmash.” And here’s his explanation of why the dressing room scene in Judy Garland’s A Star is Born isn’t the “Rose’s Turn” it would have been on B’way.

“H’wood has always preferred to run its business hours in dialogue.

Music is the coffee break.”

I love more than anything a good tune or dance that advances

narrative, like “The Portland Fancy” in Summer Stock. My all-time favorite is Cole Porter’s “Hey, Babe, Hey” from Born to Dance, in which he cleaves his upper crust and cuts loose with the very apogee of a populist number. Mordden seconds my joy when he calls it “a showpiece.”

The book begins with an overview of the early H’wood musical, then devotes full chapters to the major B’way composers whose work H’wood mostly hampered. It’s a chronicle of how H’wood abuses, misuses, and misunderstands the B’way composers they felt obliged to hire as symbols of class. H’wood wanted to be elite. But even more, it wanted to be popular.

“H’wood’s love of New York’s prestige and originality [was] outweighed by its fear of alienating what we now call the red-state countryside” What it wanted was the hits of

Tin Pan Alley, not the art of B’way.

It wasn’t eager or able to yield its usual standards and prejudices.

On B’way, the composer is king. In

H’wood, it’s the producer.

Usually that’s a man of little taste whose main interest is the bottom line.

Mordden examines how B’way composers foundered, unable to exert the authority they were accustomed to. “De Sylva, Brown and Henderson simply broke up the act.

Irving Berlin was seldom able to persuade H’wood commanders to let him in on planning or executing a project, and Gershwin got only ‘Shall We Dance’ as a model of how songs perfect narration.”

B’way wasn’t entirely impotent in H’wood, though, and Mordden traces how H’wood’s brush with B’way ultimately re-oriented it from the revue-sical, with its drop-in songs, to the movie musical, with its integrated score intentions.

Perhaps reflecting the scholarly intentions of Oxford University Press, the book does have some musicological jargon that’s so

dense that it can’t succeed in letting us “hear” through words a song’s effectiveness. I never thought I’d argue Mordden on elements of style, but where’s Whitney Balliet when we need him?

While most of Mordden’s exegeses make us run for the DVD shelf (the one at my house has collected every musical title possible, as well as some bootlegs that ain’t), sometimes they make us wrack our brain.

Wasn’t there what Mordden calls the Vulnerable Male in any musical before, as he claims, Rodgers and Hammerstein revealed him as late as 1945 in Carousel’s Billy Bigelow?

Something I prize in Mordden is how he lets it known that he’s a gay writer. He notes Lorenz Hart’s appreciation of H’wood’s nightlife. “Its shady gay component must have tickled. New York was bound up in subterfuges; in Los Angeles, gay life hid in plain sight.”

And you’ve never read before now a lyric Mordden exhumes from the numerous numbers cut from Hollywood Party. Hart wrote it to twit Marlene Dietrich’s rumored bisexuality. “People ask me dearie, ain’t you Wallace Beery?”t

Wolf, with comparable challenges and rewards for the pianist, to which Vignoles rises splendidly.

Boesch is in that category of singers I most cherish. His technique is rock-solid, his musicianship both instinctive and honed, his aspiration nothing short of maximal communication. But it’s one of those voices that keeps its owner on alert; when the mouth falls open, anything could come out, some of it invertebrate. But as a listener you know what was meant. This recording finds Boesch at his mellifluous best, but still venturing all manners of sound, many of them near speech.

He rounds off the recital with four early Alexander Zemlinsky songs in the same mood as Krenek’s.

Some of us do better with acknowledgement that these are dark times, and that others have been through them, with the same minimal confidence that things will work out.

Few composers have been as eloquent or clever about life under authoritarian rule as Dmitri Shostakovich, and few of Shostakovich’s interpreters have been as keenly responsive as Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons. The second volume of the Boston Symphony’s Under Stalin’s Shadow, commemorating live performances under Nelsons, arrives with the sinister symphonies Five, Eight and Nine (with a slice of wry: not so “incidental” Hamlet).

As with the first installment’s towering 10th, the playing and the thought behind it are staggering.

Along with the darkness there are the composer’s sly deceptions in defiance of tyranny, and you shiver to their canny boldness. The Fifth is surely Shostakovich’s best-known symphony, but Nelsons and the Bostonians make you feel you’re at the premiere, because in so many ways you are.t

delivers acoustic versions of familiar holiday numbers “Do You Hear What I Hear?,” “Silent Night,” “O Holy Night” and “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.” He also unwraps a pair of new original songs, “Christmas Prayers” and “Make a Happy Song.”

On his first solo Christmas album Tis the Seasons (Rhino), Frankie Valli reteams with fellow Four Season Bob Gaudio, as producer. You wish that Valli had done something like this sooner, when his voice still had its strength. But it’s nice to hear what Valli does with tinsel tunes “The Christmas Song,” “Merry Christmas,

Baby” (joined by Jeff Beck), a disco-y “Frosty the Snowman,” “Let It Snow!

Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” and “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve.” Susan Boyle’s A Wonderful World (SYCO/Columbia), with its leafless snow-covered trees and the suggestion of snowflakes in her hair on the cover, is a holiday album without stating the obvious. Angels dominate on ABBA’s “I Have a Dream” and Robbie Williams’ “Angels,” while Boyle’s is schmaltzy as all get out on An American Tail’s “Somewhere Out There” (a duet with Michael Bolton).

Her reading of McCartney’s “Mull of Kintyre” verges on the patriotic. The real surprise is how she cleans up Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.” No icon smooching there.t

Notes in dark times

by Tim Pfaff

T

he whole week before the election, I found myself listening to nothing but Goetterdaemmerung and honestly wasn’t sure why.

When I tweeted about it, I learned that other music-lovers equally confident of an HRC win had done the same. Gratefully for us, there’s some new “high-class” music that addresses and expresses our political outrage.

It’s as if St. Cecilia herself heard my prayer. Hyperion recently released baritone Florian Boesch’s recording of Ernst Krenek’s Reisebuch aus den oesterreichischen Alpen (Travelogue from the Austrian Alps, with pianist Roger Vignoles), a rare event that could have gone unnoticed were not the recording so very fine and suddenly, horribly timely. It’s one of the last century’s greatest German song cycles. Krenek, who also wrote the texts, encapsulates the uncomfortable period between the two world wars with an unlikely vessel: a European wanderer’s escapade as tourist. Even in 1929, travel was its own trial, and the singer is not shy about his disdain for the crowds, most of whom seem more interested in photographing things than in actually seeing them. Selfie, anyone?

The sensibility is Schubertian Wanderer, and as Schubert did in Winterreise, the cycle moves from deceptively bumptious naivete (of the Bavarian “take cheer” type) to warier, more sinister sentiments. At the end of the second section, the traveler takes a moment to revile the Alpine locals, but more, the “grasshopper-like” hordes of tourists who descend on the place. “Seldom

do you see native people dull and bored; they observe the horror and silently calculate the profit they will coax from the pockets of these strangers from the north.” Me an expat in Thailand, Asia’s premiere tourist destination, he’s singing my song.

But in Section 3, Politics, new horrors come into prospect. Krenek would become one of the many Jewish composers who emigrated to the U.S. to escape the Final Solution, and in 1929 it was already clear to him what was coming. “Remember the times, brothers, when thousands of us fell daily, victims of evil? Brothers, send the bloody clown packing, once and for all, shut down the macabre circus – enough is enough.” The “bloody clown” is Hitler, striking up his “macabre circus,” and as they say, the rest you know.

Naivete is extinguished by the Epilogue, which ends with an expression of qualified hope. “I live, and do not know how long. I die, and do not know when. I walk and do not know where. Is this the final wisdom of every journey, indeed of all life? Despite that, I do not wonder that I am, despite everything, happy.”

The music is varied, some of it richly colored, some of it monochrome. It’s nowhere near as difficult as, say, Schoenberg’s The Book of the Hanging Gardens. It’s closer to the sound and sensibility of Hugo

Holiday hootenanny

by Gregg Shapiro

T

here’s something wonderful about holiday standards sung a cappella. Pentatonix, featuring gay members Mitch Grassi and Scott Hoying, certainly does. A Pentatonix Christmas (RCA) brings the cappella group’s holiday release tally to three, including the 2012 EP PTXmas and 2015’s full-length That’s Christmas to Me. With the originals “The Christmas SingAlong” and “Good To Be Bad,” the quintet adds its distinctive touch to holiday favorites “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Up on the Housetop” and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.”

Pentatonix earns points for teaming up with the legendary Manhattan

Transfer on “White Christmas” and digging out Nsync’s “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays.” The five-voice group performs a lovely rendition of Leonard Cohen’s oft-covered “Hallelujah.”

Acoustic Christmas (Capitol) by Neil Diamond, who is sounding more like fellow yeshiva bocher Leonard Cohen with each passing year, contains more sweet caroling (get it?) from the music legend.

“Children Go Where I Send Thee” and “Go Tell It on the Mountain” are given the full gospel treatment when Diamond is joined by the Blind Boys of Alabama. Diamond

<< Theatre

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 22-28, 2016

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Gertrude Stein

From page 17

Toklas and Stein knew they were living important lives as they were happening, realizing that the world they had made for themselves was a once-in-a-generation confluence of art, literature, lifestyles, and the larger-than-life personalities behind them. As early as 1937, Stein was in contact with Yale University offering, upon her death, all manuscripts as well as “correspondence with Picasso, Matisse, Ernest Hemingway, Juan Gris, William James, Mildred Aldrich and others.” The Yale Library happily accepted, and after Stein’s death in 1946, cartons of material began making their way from Paris to New Haven.

“Miss Stein had not exaggerated when she described the papers as being ‘in a good deal of mess,’ and a corner of the Yale Collection of American Literature room looked for many days like a wastepaper collection center.

Gradually the incredible wealth of the material was revealed,” Yale Library curator Donald Gallup wrote in 1947.

And there was a second chapter to this legacy, as further material passed to Yale upon the death of Toklas in 1967. Among these were love letters between Stein and Toklas that were first shunted into a cabinet forgotten until the Yale Library opened a new building dedicated to its rare book and manuscript collection.

In a foreword to the published edition of Gertrude Stein and a Companion, literary doyenne Blanche Marvin writes, “This is the love story of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas told with congeniality.”

The dialogue, according to Marvin, comes from Stein and Toklas’ own

<<

Film 2016

From page 17

words taken from published works and the hundreds of letters they wrote to each other and to contemporary figures of great renown.

Where Wells has supplemented the dialogue, the goal was to capture the quotable Stein’s style.

“But most of all,” Marvin continues, “this work is about Alice – the unsung heroine. The outside world was led to believe that her personality was that of a mousy woman who took second place to the vibrant Gertrude. The play reveals her as she really was – a witty woman with a sharp brain and cutting tongue.

Without Alice, Gertrude without have remained undiscovered.”

That the title of the play doesn’t mention Toklas by name emphasizes the misunderstood status in the Stein-Toklas relationship. And it plays off Ernest Hemingway’s insistence on referring to the couple as “Gertrude Stein and a companion” to show his disdain for this strange Toklas figure, whom he considering “frightening.”

Conflicting feelings over Hemingway remain a prime topic in Gertrude Stein and a Companion, as Toklas is still rankled by this dismissal as she converses with the spirit of her long-dead partner. Wells wrote the play for two cast members to occasionally speak in the voice of various characters who passed through their lives, including, of course, Hemingway.

In Theatre Rhino’s production, Kathryn L. Wood is playing Gertrude and Elaine Jennings is playing Alice. Haley Bertelsen has the role of a young woman, and while the original New York production had only two performers, the play’s licensors are open to expanded casts.

Wood is co-directing the upcoming

production with Rhino Executive Director John Fisher.

Unfortunately for playwright Win Wells, he died of cancer just as Gertrude Stein and a Companion was beginning to attract attention.

He had worked on several secondtier movies before that, including writing the story for the 1979 Bloodbath, directed by his longtime partner Silvio Narizzano (who had made himself in 1966 with Georgy Girl). Information on Wells that

could include how he came to take on Stein and Toklas as a subject is hard to come by. We do know that he wrote a play about Federico Garcia Lorca in 1981 that was produced in Los Angeles, and that he lived his final years in Mojacar, Spain, with Narizzano.

A short bio of Wells included in the script for Gertrude Stein and a Companion reports that he was born in Arkansas, where, “perched on his father’s shoulder, he witnessed

the chaos of 21st-century America.

David takes a job at an old-fashioned Korean male bathhouse, a hangout for middle-aged men seeking a taste of the old country, discovering to his shock that it has somehow morphed into a de facto late-night gay sex club.

4. Front Cover is the latest work from Ray Yeung, whose 2008 CutSleeve Boys was a dress rehearsal for this sophisticated urban comedy. Ryan’s editor reneges on a long-promised cover story, and instead assigns him to create a new campaign around an ego-inflated, Chinese-born star. Combines an insider’s take on fashionistas with a two-worlds-collide cute-boys implosion.

5. Little Men A revelatory study of two boys, Jake (Theo Taplitz) and Tony (scene-stealing newcomer Michael Barbieri), growing up fast under the pressure of bad blood between their families. The boys become fast friends and possibly more. Introvert Jake is content to spend his days drawing, while Tony sweeps around the hood like a pintsized tornado. Ira Sachs’ film examines those moments in adolescence when kids surrender a child’s awe of their parents’ infallibility and become resigned to their family’s flaws and not-so-secret sins.

6. Cafe Society In Woody Allen’s literate and laugh-out-loud latest, Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg)

is a young go-getter seeking to learn the science of the care and feeding of Hollywood egos from his worldweary talent-agent uncle (Steve Carell). He falls in love with a young starlet (Kristen Stewart) and becomes disillusioned with the picture business. Set in the 1930s, first decade of the sound era when ruthless men called the shots, Allen’s film benefits from his life-long aversion to life on the Left Coast. Now 80, Allen gives his surrogate Eisenberg free reign to bring his personal style and comic chops to the role.

7. From Afar In Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas’ dark tale, middle-aged denture-maker Armando (Alfredo Castro) pays to dominate

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Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein, 20th-century icons, are the subject of a Theatre Rhino play.

1. Being 17 French master Andre Techine returns. His 1994 classic Wild Reeds about French adolescents set the bar high for movies where teen characters grapple with adult dilemmas. Here two teen boys, Thomas (newcomer Corentin Fila) and Damien (Kacey Mottet Klein), are forced to overcome racial differences and complicated personal histories to forge a bond neither could have imagined.

2. Manchester by the Sea Casey Affleck is moving as a New England janitor drowning in sorrow, a human hand grenade capable of pulling his own pin. Just when his life appears to have bottomed out, Lee gets news that his older brother has died, leaving him in charge of his teenage nephew. Kenneth Lonergan withholds crucial information about the source of Lee’s dark mood until late in the film, when everything is painfully and poignantly clear. With a great supporting cast: newcomer Lucas Hedges battles his emotionally unstable uncle like a pro, while Michelle Williams scores as Lee’s ex-wife.

3. Spa Night First-time feature director Andrew Ahn puts his good-little-boy protagonist (Joe Seo, in a Sundance Special Grand Jury Award performance) in a family business that gives us a catbird seat’s view of a complex immigrant community. Although it had its debut at the Frameline film fest, Spa Night is less a queer drama than a film showing how a tidal wave of Jake (Theo Taplitz) and Tony (Michael Barbieri) in director Ira Sachs’ Little Men. new immigrants deals with

a lynching.” He declared himself a poet at age 12, moved north, and would tour 47 states as an early beat poet. Wells was working on a new play about the eccentric avant-garde poet Edith Sitwell when he died at age 48.t Gertrude Stein and a Companion will run Dec. 28-Jan. 8 at the Eureka Theatre. Tickets are $15$40. Call (800) 838-3006 or go to therhino.org.

bad boys like Elder (humpy newcomer Luis Silva), a brutal Caracas street thug. In a dance macabre series of brutal encounters, thug and denture-maker refuse to let each other or us glimpse their true feelings and needs, in a society brutalized and betrayed by politics from both left and right.

8. Jackie The new bio-pic from director Pablo Larrain seduces you into imagining what it must have been like for first lady Jacqueline Kennedy when the sound of three bullets shattered her regal world forever.

The creators of this smart, sensitive, beautifully lensed film don’t attempt to cover its subject’s spectacular lifearc, instead zeroing in on the crucial hours of the Dallas motorcade and assassination.

9. The Good Wife Over seven years, series creators Robert and Michelle King produced an amazingly inclusive look at the legal profession as seen from the vantage point of the wife of a disgraced politician.

When her Illinois State Attorney hubby is jailed in a sex scandal, Alicia Florrick (the sublime Julianna Margulies) supports herself and two kids in the hyper-competitive world of a big Chicago law firm. The series was diligent with queer issues, including a bisexual investigator and Alicia’s gay teacher brother.

10. Looking In the final 90-minute episode of HBO’s San Francisco-set gay male series, openly queer actor Jonathan Groff returns to town for a reunion with his old friends and lovers. Playing like a movie with great shots of the Castro, this series finale creates a great blueprint for future gay TV.t (Next week: Best films 11-20.)

28

Leather

30

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Holiday Spirits

Shining Stars Vol. 46 • No. 51 • December 22-28, 2016

www.ebar.com ✶ www.bartabsf.com

On the Tab Dec. 22-29

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njoy holiday nightlife, bef ore, during or after a man in red stuffs toys dow n your chimney.

Wait, that’s probably an event, too. Full listings online at www.ebar.co m/bartab

page 29 >> Listings begin on

Fri 23 Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi

Keep On Rocking in the Queer World

Tuxedomoon performing at the Gay Community Center (330 Grove) in the late 1970s.

Punk, New Wave and experimental rock in ‘70s and ‘80s gay San Francisco

by Michael Flanagan

R

Dan Nicoletta

ock and roll was tied up in my concept of what San Francisco was even before I moved here. The impact of the Summer of Love and groups like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane were felt around the world. But when I first visited in 1978, punk and New Wave were the dominant forces.

See page 26 >>

JACQUELINE PATTON PHOTOGRAPHY

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

th e

: S E I V V I K S O A D K IL L H O L ID AY R

STARRING

LAUREN MOLINA AND NICK CEARLEY RANDY HARRISON

WITH SPECIAL GUEST

ACT-SF.ORG

415.749.2228

“UNDIE ROCK, with a SOUPÇON OF BROADWAY” The New York Times

DEC 22–23 A.C.T.'S STR AND THEATER

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26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 22-28, 2016

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Keep on Rockin’

From page 25

My trip featured a visit to Rough Trade Records, then on Grant Street. When I moved here in 1980, the clubs I favored included the Stud, the I-Beam and the Headquarters (683 Clementina) – where a metal door was rolled up between midnight and 2am. Then the pizza restaurant had made its nightly transition to an afterhours club where I was introduced to songs like Human League’s “Being Boiled” and Pete Shelley’s “Homosapien.”

If you watch films about this period, you would think that all gay people listened to disco. But the gay press of the era will disabuse you of this notion. Howie Klein, who worked at Aquarius Records on Castro and KSAN –and who would go on to work with artists like Depeche Mode, Talking Heads and the Ramones at Sire Records– wrote a column for the Bay Area Reporter called “Discographic Drool” from 1976 to 1978.

In his first column on Aug. 5, 1976, he wrote, “In San Francisco you can hear the Blue Öyster Cult in Toad Hall, Willie Nelson at the Rainbow Cattle Company, Patti Smith at the Hungry Hole, Emmylou Harris in the Cinch, and, of course, disco music in other bars.”

He then went on to review the first Ramones album. Klein was followed by Adam Block and Jerry De Gracia, who wrote about rock music in the B.A.R. well through the ‘80s.

Another LGBT press connection from the era is transgender author and musician Ginger Coyote. Coyote began the zine Punk Globe in 1977 (online at www.punkglobe.com) and

went on to form the White Trash Debutantes in the late 1980s.

DJs were a vital source of inspiration to nascent punk rock in the gay community as well. Marc Huestis told me, “We had punk rock Mondays at Cafe Flore followed by punk rock night at The Stud.”

Larry LaRue started playing rock at The Stud (then at 1535 Folsom) in August 1978, so the informal punk rock Mondays at Flore was happening before that. Sam LaBelle started playing rock at The Brig in 1979. By 1981 Alan Robinson had started playing rock at the I-Beam.

Greg Cruikshank began his DJ career playing punk and new wave at the 181 Club in 1981 as well.

One group of performers central to LGBT Punk and New Wave were the Angels of Light. Members of Tuxedomoon, Noh Mercy/Esmerelda and the Wasp Women were all involved in the Angels, as were filmmaker Marc Huestis, electronic wizard and producer Tommy Tadlock, and Cruikshank.

Daniel Nicoletta was romantically involved in the ‘70s with Tuxedomoon member Steven Brown and photographed their performances.

Cruikshank had been to London and told me, “In 1976 I met and collaborated with Vivienne Westwood in the U.K. Upon returning, I felt the need to be a conduit for what was a counter-cultural London moment that would later be called Punk or New Wave.”

Tuxedomoon provided musical accompaniment to the Angels show Sci-Clones at Everett Middle School (450 Church) in March, 1978. They also performed in the Castro at the Eureka Theater (then in the basement of a church on Market Street). Their version of “I

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

▼

Heard It Through The Grapevine” features Cruikshank on vocals and was recorded live on the back of a float on Castro Street in August 1977 during Gay day celebrations.

Tuxedomoon performed at the Gay Community Center (at 330 Grove) with Winston Tong and Noh Mercy and at the Temple Beautiful, Deaf Club and Mabuhay Gardens. A complete history of these prolific musicians (including the period involving the Angels of Light) is available in the book Music For Vagabonds: The Tuxedomoon Chronicles by Isabelle Corbisier.

Noh Mercy was Esmerelda Kent and Tony Hotel and existed from 1979 to 1980. They performed at places like the Deaf Club (530 Valencia), Mabuhay Gardens (443 Broadway) and Savoy Tivoli (1434 Grant) as well as 544 Natoma, Peter Hartman’s performance gallery. In 1980 the group broke up and Esmerelda began performing solo. A CD of Noh Mercy’s work, including live performances from the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, was released in 2012.

The Wasp Women were Rodney Price, Julie Petro and Teena Rosen and existed from 1979 – 1981. Their backup band called The Maggot Men SF Punk Archive, San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library featured musicians from the Touch Tones and Wire Train. A punk New Year’s Eve concert flyer for a show featuring Black Flag and They began as a skit from the other not-gay but queer-ish bands.

Angels of Light at the Castro Street Fair in 1979 and were well. The Tom Robinson Band When musicians with special apso popular they continued to came through town in 1978 and peal to the gay community like Visperform for two years. The released tied their message to Anita Bryant, age and Pete Shelley came through a single entitled “Kill Me!” backed John Briggs and Proposition 6. town, there was ample coverage in with “I Don’t Need Your Attitude” Jayne County came to town in the gay press (and non-musicians and are perhaps best known for June 1980 and Adam Block suglike Edith Massey got coverage their appearance in Huestis film gested in his column it was an event when they fronted bands as well).

Whatever Happened to Susan Jane. “every adventurous soul should tatPunk and New Wave were a vital Said Huestis, “What I loved about too on their calendars.” response to the Reagan years and this scene was the gay element melded into the punk zeitgeist.

It was wild and looking back curiously innocent.”

There were several other San Francisco bands associated with the LGBT community that were not associated with the Angels, however, including Wilma, the Contractions and Voice Farm. Wilma and the Contractions had a political edge to their music, whereas Voice Farm was catchy and synth dominant (they would later open for Depeche Mode).

And events against Proposition 6 occurred such as “Nix on Six: Save The Homos Benefit” with bands like Crime and The Offs playing, with Harvey Milk acting as emcee at the Mabuhay Gardens.

Aside from homegrown performers, the queer punk scene drew performers from outside the area as well. One notable example is Camille O’Grady, who had been performing in New York at clubs such as CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City since 1973. O’Grady’s sound was keyboard-based and as a punk chanteuse she was well known for her song “Toilet Kiss.”

Initially a member of Television was in her backup band and she opened for Lou Reed on the Street Hassle tour. She was provided an introduction to San Francisco from Robert Mapplethorpe, who recommended her to writer Jack Fritscher and artist Robert Opel.

O’Grady moved here in late 1978 and performed at several clubs in SoMa including The Brig (where they constructed a pine coffin as her stage) and The Ambush, as well as at SF Punk Archive, San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library Opel’s Fey Way gallery.

Gay San Francisco was a A flyer for a Wilma concert. magnet for bands on tour as

▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

December 22-28, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Mark Huestis

The Wasp Women.

channeled the anger of their fans.

They had a home in gay San Francisco in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, providing entertainment to many fans. As part of our history the scene

deserves to be remembered – and it is preserved both through Huestis’ film and the iconography and music from the era. The punk impulse remains a vital artistic inspiration.▼

The author would like to thank Marc Huestis, Greg Cruikshank, Dan Nicoletta, Sam LaBelle, Penelope Houston, Camille O’Grady and Jack Fritscher.

SF Punk Archive, San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library

A flyer for a Ghetto Girls show hosted by Doris Fish.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 22-28, 2016

Catalyst for change

▼

by Race Bannon

B

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Rich Stadtmiller

Leather Alliance Executive Committee (L to R): Rachele Sullivan, Alliance Vice-President; Dahn Van Laarz, Alliance President; Larry Shockey, Independent Director; and Seth Munter, SF Catalyst Coordinator. (Not pictured, Rover Spotts, Golden Gate Guards Representative to the Leather Alliance.)

M AR

CAFE

uilding and maintaining community is the foundation upon which any vibrant subculture rests.

Doing so is difficult if that subculture is hard pressed to find places in which to meet. In the case of contemporary leather and kink communities, that means spaces in which we can gather to learn, discuss, organize, socialize and play.

A new truly community-based project is underway that seeks to assist San Francisco with just such space needs. It’s called SF Catalyst (www. sfcatalyst.org), a new venture by the San Francisco Bay Area Leather Alliance (www.leatheralliance.org).

The Alliance serves to foster communication and coordination between the various15TH groups and subST | communities Catering in the Bay Area leather scene. They have many ongoing projects and events including Leather Alley at SF Pride, the Mr. ST Leather 16THSF contest, the SF Leather Community Awards, Leather Alliance Weekend, the SMsafely website, a start-up orgaST 17TH program, nization sponsorship and now the new SF Catalyst space.

SF Catalyst is in the South of Market area where the former Alchemy SF was located.

Dahn Van Laarz, President of the Alliance, explains why the organization took on this project.

“Community space for play, meetings and events has been disappearing at an alarming rate from San Francisco. Much of the remaining event space is unaffordable for community groups, or doesn’t meet other needs. The closing of the previous incarnation of the space, Alchemy SF, offered us an opportunity to rework an already successful community space, build upon what had been done, and expand its accessibility to community groups for additional uses.”

Recently, there have been a few community meetings held to discuss the viability of a collectively owned and run leather/kink community space. So, this new project fits into that vision. Seth Munter, Coordinator for SF Catalyst, explained it this way.

“Over the years, many individuals and organizations have discussed a vision for a San Francisco BDSM/ Leather/Kink/Fetish Communities Center that could unite adult alternative lifestyle communities and support nonprofit and for-profit entities who support our liberty and self-expression,” said Munter.

“Attempts to raise money for such a venture have been held back by at least three concerns. What can we financially afford to do? What needs can be addressed effectively by a such a communities center?

“Can a nonprofit organization successfully operate a communities center? That brought the Alliance to take on the opportunity provided when the hard working and generous people that had worked so hard to run Alchemy SF decided to close their doors.”

The Catalyst name was chosen because it speaks to the Alliance’s vision for the project, a place to create change and move forward, both for individuals and our community.

Quite a bit of thought went into choosing the name. The Alliance drew input from many individuals and groups, considering the history and the future of what they were hoping to create.

The goal was to not only preserve leather and kink space, but to bring the various kink communities together to make all our spaces more successful. The project serves as a “catalyst” for the community to come together and build something new.

Rich Stadtmiller

SF Catalyst Volunteer Team Leaders (L to R): Aisia, Marketing Volunteer Team Leader; Seth Munter, SF Catalyst Coordinator; Mark Smith, Volunteer Team Leader; Dahn Van Laarz, Alliance President; Kato, Financial Volunteer Team Leader; Shasta, Booking Volunteer Team Leader; and Richard Ryo, Co-Facilities Volunteer Team Leader. (Not Pictured, Justin Wienckowski, Technology Volunteer Team Leader.)

While the Alliance just recently took over the new space, they have lots of plans in the works. Their short-term goal is to preserve the space for play and events while jump-starting the process of creating a leather/kink community center, a place where many of the current organizations and current businesses could come together, share resources and space, and build upon each other’s strengths for the long term. Most of our kink-friendly spaces are rented and subject to the whims of the real estate market. The Alliance hopes to eventually circumvent that problem with a community-owned space.

Some of the long-term goals for SF Catalyst include: (1) profitable management that builds reserves for an eventual community-owned center; (2) enhancing viability, sustainability and attendance at events at other community venues; (3) conducting a survey to evaluate the needs and value of community resources that could be housed in a future community center; and (4) developing fundraising capabilities, reserves and capital sources for the purpose of purchasing, upgrading and managing such a center.

Some of the immediate projects underway are creating a much easier booking process, an improved calendar for the website, modifications to the space and equipment to enhance flexibility and user options, and additional configurations for uses including as an education and meeting space.

Also in process is the setting up of an online volunteer portal to make it easier for community members to give of their time. Currently, they ask anyone interested in volunteering to email them at volunteers@ sfcatalyst.org.

Of course, SF Catalyst is but one of many kink venues in our area. The Alliance and the operating group made it absolutely clear that they are committed to working with all of the other San Francisco leather and kink venues such as the Center for Sex & Culture, The Citadel, Studio Kink, Wicked Grounds, and our many bars and sex clubs. While there are some overlaps

between all of these existing venues, each is unique in its facilities and features. This variety helps make our local scene more robust and diverse.

Aisia, SF Catalyst’s Marketing Volunteer Team Leader, adds this.

“I believe that Catalyst fits into the local solution because members of the team are volunteers from different factions of the community,” she said. “With members from across various areas the team is able to hopefully reach out to more people and while it won’t be perfect, at least people should feel that Catalyst is trying to make a true community space and not just a space for certain communities. The group that we have put together interviewed for the various positions and were selected based on what they could bring to the team and what areas of the community they felt they could help bring into the space.”

Might you, your club or organization want to utilize the SF Catalyst space? Visit their website. Then an email inquiry to bookings@sfcatalyst.org is a good way to reach their booking volunteers. They have several rental options available depending on the use and the type of group or individual.

The folks overseeing the operations of SF Catalyst are eager to help by encouraging new groups, new events, and new ways of building community. They have flexible options for all kind of event organizers who are experienced running events as well as for those who are just starting out or curious about how to get started.

Yet again, San Francisco Bay Area kinksters step up and do something tangible to keep our local scene alive and vibrant. Let’s make SF Catalyst, as well as all the Bay Area kinkfriendly bars, businesses, play spaces and meeting venues as successful as we possibly can. Because without them everyone will be spending all their time staring at their phones on hookup apps, but with nowhere to go otherwise.▼

For Leather events, visit www.ebar.com/bartab Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist.

You can reach him on his website, www.bannon.com.

▼

On the Tab>>

December 22-28, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Wed 28 Baloney @ Oasis

Musical Mondays @ The Edge Sing along at the popular musical theatre night; also Wednesdays. 7pm2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing.

4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

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

<<

From page 25

Thu 22

Alaska Thunderfuck @ Oasis The naughty funny RuPaul’s Drag Race star performs a raunchy Christmas show. $30-$75. 7pm & 9:30pm. Also Dec. 23, 7pm only. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Karaoke Night @ The Stud Sing along and sing out, Louise, with hostess Sister Flora Goodthyme. 8pm2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge The weekly drag show with DJ MC2, themed nights and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Peter White Christmas Show @ Yoshi’s Oakland Contemporary jazz concert of holiday songs. $39. 8pm & 10pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Queer Karaoke @ Club OMG Dana hosts the weekly singing night; unleash your inner American Idol.

8pm. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Thump @ White Horse, Oakland Weekly electro music night with DJ Matthew Baker and guests. 9pm-2am.

6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. No cell phones on the dance floor, please! $5. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. auntcharlieslounge.com

Underwear Night @ Powerhouse Free coat/clothes check when you strip down to your skivvies at the cruisy SoMa bar. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Fri 23

Ain’t Mama’s Drag @ Balancoire Weekly drag queen and drag king show hosted by Cruzin d’Loo. 8pm10pm. No cover. 2565 Mission St. www.balancoiresf.com

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. Holiday Extravaganza runs Nov. 16 –Dec. 31 (special New Year’s Eve shows). $25$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. Wed-Fri 8pm. Sat 6pm & 9pm. Sun 2pm & 5pm. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd.

(Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

The 24th annual ‘Jewish comedy in a Chinese restaurant’ series of shows celebrate the other holidays, with comics Elayne Boosler, Eddie Sarfaty, Alex Edelman and MC Lisa Geduldig. $49-$69. 5pm dinner shows, and 8:30pm cocktail shows (with nibblies; vegetarian and non-veg plates).

Partial proceeds benefit Jewish nonprofits. Theu Dec. 25. 772 Pacific Ave., www.koshercomedy.com

Nightmare Before Christmas @ Port Bar Carnie Asada hosts a ghoulish holiday rum cocktail night. 9pm-1am. 2023 Broadway, Oakland. www.portbaroakland.com

Red Hots Burlesque @ The Stud The saucy women’s burlesque show hosted by Dottie Lux will titillate and tantalize. $10-$20. 8pm-9:30pm. 399 9th St. Also Sunday brunch shows at PianoFight Theatre.144 Taylor St. . redhotsburlesque.com studsf.com

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall Enjoy hard rock and punk music from DJ Don Baird at the wonderfully divey SoMa bar. Also Fridays. 7pm-2am. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Shenanigans @ Oasis Birthday-themed dance night with the creative costume crowd. $7-$10.

10pm-2am. 298 11th St. sfoasis.com

Some Thing @ The Stud Mica Sigourney and pals’ weekly offbeat themed drag performance night. $7. 10pm-3am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Sat 24

Dance Party @ Port Bar, Oakland

Sun 25 –

Christmas Day

Some bars and clubs will be closed. Check in advance.

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle

Open Christmas Day! The classic leather bar’s most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. Beer bust donations benefit local nonprofits. $10. 3pm-6pm. Now also on Saturdays. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Femme Brunch @ Balancoire Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch buffet, bottomless Mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant, with live entertainment and DJ Shawn P. $15-$20. 11am-3pm.

After that, Femme T-Dance drag shows at 7pm, 10pm and 11pm. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

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

Mon 26

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

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

Enjoy relaxed happy hour cocktails early (open at 5pm) and later dancing in the cozy back room at the newest LGBT bar. Daily 5pm-2am. 2023 Broadway, Oakland. www.portbaroakland.com

Drag Me to Brunch @ Lookout Weekly show with soul, funk and Motown grooves hosted by Carnie Asada, with DJs Becky Knox and Pumpkin Spice. The yummy brunch menu starts at 12pm, with the show at 1pm. 3600 16th St. lookoutsf.com

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland Latin, hip hop and Electro music night.

Dec. 24: no cover, 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

Pretty in Ink @ Powerhouse Show off your tattoos at the inkthemed night. $5. 9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

ShangriLa @ The Endup The gay Asian and pals’ dance night returns for a Merry Xmas party; DJs Joshua D, Aki and Jack RoRo. $20$25. and up. 10pm-8am. 401 6th St.

Sat 24 ShangriLa @ The Endup

The popular male burlesque dance revue brings their ‘Best Of’ show to the SoMa club. $25-$50. 7pm. Nightly thru Dec. 31. 298 11th St. sfbaloney.com sfoasis.com

Comedy Showcase @ SF Eagle

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht.

9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market.

Girl Scout @ Port Bar, Oakland

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

Kung Pao Kosher Comedy @ New Asia Restaurant

Baloney @ Oasis

Kollin Holtz hosts the open mic comedy night. 5:30pm-8pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Underwear Night @ 440

On the Tab

Wed 28

Tue 27

Gaymer Night @ Eagle Gay gaming fun on the bar’s big screen TVs. Have a nerdgasm and a beer with your pals. 8pm. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

High Fantasy @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Weekly drag and variety show, with live acts and lip-synching divas, plus DJed grooves. $5. Shows at 10:30pm & 12am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Hysteria @ Martuni’s Irene Tu and Jessica Sele cohost the comedy open mic night for women and queers. No cover. 6pm-8:30pm.

4 Valencia St.

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

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Strip down as the strippers also take it all off. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Retro Night @ 440 Castro Jim Hopkins plays classic pop oldies, with vintage music videos. 9pm-2am.

44 Castro St. www.the440.com

Trivia Night @ Port Bar, Oakland Cranny hosts a big gay trivia night at the new East Bay bar; drinks specials and prizes. 7:30pm. 2023 Broadway. www.portbaroakland.com

Underwear Night @ Club OMG Weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, and drink specials. $4.

10pm-2am. Preceded by Open Mic Comedy, 7pm, no cover. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

The weekly women’s happy hour and dance night with DJ Becky Knox. 6pm10pm. 2023 Broadway. www.portbaroakland.com

Miss Kitty’s Trivia Night @ Wild Side West The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted

by Kitty Tapata. No cover. 7pm10pm. 424 Cortland St. 647-3099. www.wildsidewest.com

Nip @ Powerhouse Nipple play night for the chesty types. Free coatcheck and drink discount for the shirtless. $5. 10pm2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Thu 29 Gym Class @ Hi Tops

Enjoy whiskey shots from jockstrapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 5512500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Literary Speakeasy @ Martuni’s The monthly reading series hosted by James J. Siegel this month includes poets Sharon Coleman, Indiana Pehlivanova, and René Vazquez; authors Richard May and Rob Rosen; and singer/songwriter Margrit Eichler. 7pm. 4 Valencia St.

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

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle Music night with local and touring bands. Dec. 1: Floating Goat’s record release party. $8. 9:30pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 22-28, 2016

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Spirits of the Season

by Jim Gladstone

E

ven the carousing readers of BARtab know that there’s no place like home for the holidays.

Which means well-stocked home bars, and well-versed home bartenders, are essential for the season.

Whether you’re dropping in to friends’ parties and can’t imagine showing up empty-handed, or you’re stocking up for your own home adventures in mixology, our last-minute gift list will surely add to your holiday “Cheers!”

Liquid locavores will appreciate something distilled right here in the Bay Area, and there’s no better source than Alameda’s own St. George’s Distillery, located in a former airplane hangar on the grounds of Alameda’s one-time navy yard. Among the boutique distillery’s most giftable offerings is its set of three distinct gins in a boxed set of 200ml bottles. The Dry Rye gin has a strong hint of caraway seed and a heavy juniper presence.

The Botanivore is smooth enough to drink straight.

And the Terroir, meant to evoke Mount Tamalpais with its incorporation of Douglas fir, bay laurel, and sage, tastes pretty much like a wet Christmas tree (Garnish with an angel or star).

St. George also makes a barrelaged rum and a coffee liqueur that make great hot toddy bases for chilly evenings around the fireplace.

You can find St. George liquors at retailers throughout the Bay Area, but why not gift a trip to the source itself. St. George offers highly entertaining tours and tastings Wednesdays through Sundays. The $20 admission also gets you a tasting of six different libations; tasting only

is $15. (2601 Monarch St. Alameda, www.stgeorgespirits.com).

While California law forbids the sampling of more than a half dozen spirits a day, we won’t call the fuzz if, after slaying St. George, you head next door to the Hangar 1 Distillery for a few bonus sips of vodka.

For the drinker who has everything, inquire about tracking down a bottle of the now rare special edition Hangar 1 Fog Point, which incorporates water from fog captured at Sutro Tower, near Ocean Beach, and in the Berkeley Hills. (2505 Monarch St., Alameda. www.hangarone. com) Over the past few months, San Francisco bars have served as the launching pad for Lo-Fi Aperitifs, a new line of vermouths and amaro made with fortified California wines, available at local retailers.

A novel alternative to a bottle of bubbly, these sophisticated, limited production tipples can be sipped on their own–straight artisanal vermouth is a typical prelude to dinner at Parisian parties– or used in cocktails.

Local cocktail consultant Claire Sprouse of the Tin Room Drink Community (www.tinroofdrinkcommunity.com) develops recipes for Lo-Fi and offered up a great winter warmer:

While the school is a proven training ground for professionals, it also offers a Fundamentals course appropriate for serious hobbyists and hosts with the most. The hands-on Saturday afternoon sessions offer key background on creating balanced drinks, so participants are inspired to craft their own rather than simply follow existing recipes.

With a little learning your friend might enter the pantheon of pourers featured in a terrific new book from Berkeley’s 10 Speed Press: A Proper Drink: The Untold Story of How a Band of Bartenders Saved the Civilized Drinking

World by Robert Simonson, is a lively, surprising read that draws on interviews with hundreds of mixologists around the country, weaving its way from the heyday of T.G.I. Friday’s to the reopening of the Rainbow Room and beyond.

There are plenty of San Francisco stories here, including kudos to Rickhouse, Bourbon & Branch, and other drinkeries of note.

Another new booze book provides an ideal way to disappoint someone who was hoping you’d spring for Hamilton tickets. Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History by Steven Grasse mixes tavern-worthy

Finn Town Old Fashioned 1 oz Buffalo Trace Bourbon 1 oz H by Hine Cognac 1 bar spoon of hopped IPA syrup (1.5:1 mix of a strong IPA Beer and sugar cookeduntil thickened and syrupy) 2 dashes Angostura bitters 1 dash Orange bitters Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass and add ice. Stir and strain into a mason jar. Garnish with brandied cherries or orange peel.

The Lombard 2 oz Lof-Fi Gentian Amaro 1 teaspoon brown sugar Hot coffee Garnish with a cinammon stick If you’ve got a gift recipient keen on concocting cocktails of their own, consider a gift certificate for a class at the California Academy of Bartending and Mixology (415861-1000. www.bartendingsf.com)

quotes from the founding fathers, a history of early American drinking, and over 50 authentic recipes. Mix him up a batch of Cock Ale and all will be forgiven.

By New Year’s weekend, you’ll likely be ready to get out of the house and do some serious gift returning. If you’re headed to one of our favorite shopping hubs, why not drink as a respite from retail?

In the heart of Hayes Valley, don’t miss chef Adam Hubbell’s decidedly non-Virgin Mary, the Brunchpad Bloody, Saturdays and Sundays at Lunchpad. A strong contender for the city’s best bloody (See also: Zeitgeist, Zuni, and NoPa), it comes with a swizzle strip of jalapeno-candied bacon and a thick slice of Hubbell’s crisp, slightly mouth-puckering homemade pickle. (581 Hayes Street. www.lunchpad.com).

And at new favorite hot spot Finn Town in the Castro (2251 Market Street. www.finntown.com), star barkeep Asheton Lemay is mixing up this newfangled Old Fashioned favorite:

Claire Sprowse of Tin Roof Drink Community creates a holiday cocktail.

Enjoy your holiday libations, in moderation, of course.▼

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

December 22-28, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Shining Stars Steven Underhill Photos by

Freeball @ Powerhouse

T

he monthly Freeball at The Powerhouse welcomed shorts-clad dudes and a sexy vibe at a holiday-themed night on December 17, hosted by Daniel DeLage and the Bare Chest Calendar, with DJ Patrick Riley. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com More photo albums are on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at www.StevenUnderhill.com.

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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

call (415) 370-7152 or visit www.StevenUnderhill.com or email stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Tis the Season for Science Now through January 8 The reindeer are back! Meet our Arctic friends and learn how these sturdy animals adapt to extreme conditions in this one-of-a-kind interactive experience. Plus, enjoy indoor snow flurries, music, and other festivities at our annual winter exhibitâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;now open every day this holiday season!

Get tickets at calacademy.org

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12/6/16 4:41 PM