February 27, 2014 Edition of the Bay Area by Bay Area Reporter

Antiques, architecture in New Orleans

Gay in the NBA

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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971

Vol. 44 • No. 9 • February 27-March 5, 2014

Elliot Owen

Transgender Law Center deputy director Kris Hayashi, left, was joined by panelists Jenna Rapues; Jae Szeszycki-Truesdell; and panel moderator, East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club board member, Darryl Moore.

Effort to repeal trans law fails

Rick Gerharter

State Senator Mark Leno speaks about his legislation to modify the Ellis Act at a February 24 news conference as Mayor Ed Lee looks on.

Two bills target Ellis Act reforms S by David-Elijah Nahmod

s the chorus of public anger grows louder at evictions permitted under a state law, two gay lawmakers introduced legislation that they say will help slow the tide of Ellis Act evictions in San Francisco. This week, state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) was joined by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and tenant advocates as he announced Senate Bill 1439, which authorizes the city to prohibit new property owners from invoking the Ellis Act to evict tenants for five years after the acquisition of a property. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) last week introduced AB 2405. As the Bay Area Reporter noted in a blog post, the bill would allow local jurisdictions – by a means of a vote by a Board of Supervisors or public vote – to enact a moratorium on Ellis Act evictions when the local housing element is not met. The Ellis Act is a 1986 state law that allows landlords to evict tenants in order to get out of the rental business. The landlord must remove all units from the rental market. Many have blamed the law for people losing their homes as well-paid employees of tech companies like Twitter and Google move to the city. Lower-income LGBT seniors, people with AIDS, and people of color have been particularly hard hit by evictions under the Ellis Act. Landlords must pay evicted tenants up to $5,000 in relocation fees, with around $3,400 more afforded to seniors and the disabled, but many have still been forced out of the city due to skyrocketing rents. Leno, who has tried before to revise the Ellis Act in the state Legislature, said his bill would close a loophole. “Our bill gives San Francisco the opportunity to stop the bleeding and save the unique fabric of our city,” he said. Leno pointed out that See page 10 >>

Remembering Emperor I

an Francisco’s new Imperial Court royalty, Empress Misty Blue and Emperor JP Soto, each paid their respects with a single rose to the grave of Jose Sarria, Absolute Empress I, the Widow Norton, who died last August. Sarria started the annual pilgrimage to Woodlawn Cemetery in Colma to pay respects at the grave of Emperor Joshua Norton, a San Francisco

by Elliot Owen Rick Gerharter

referendum sponsored by right-wing organizations to repeal Assembly Bill 1266, a groundbreaking transgender youth equality law, has failed to garner enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot. The California secretary of state’s office issued the final full check Monday, February 24. It showed that the Privacy for All Students See page 10 >>

eccentric from the 1850s, who is buried directly behind Sarria to the left. The February 23 activities also included music by the Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, a message from Sarria from heaven transmitted by Don Fox, remembrances of Sarria, and congratulations to the new Empress and Emperor. For more on the Imperial Court Coronation weekend, see the BARtab section.

SF Pride announces grand marshal nominees

Jane Philomen Cleland

Brian Basinger

Bill Wilson

Lenny Broberg

Courtesy SF Pride

Judy Grahn

Courtesy SF Pride

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

Jo-Lynn Otto

Jewlyes Gutierrez

Rick Gerharter

Tommi Avicolli Mecca

Courtesy SF Pride

Melanie Nathan

by Seth Hemmelgarn

rganizers of San Francisco’s LGBT Pride parade and celebration have announced the nominees for the 2014 grand marshals, and voting went live this week. Public voting for the grand marshals, who typically ride in the parade, will conclude March 17. People may vote at http://www.sfpride.org/ vote, which also includes locations for polling stations where people may vote in person. “We received over 50 nominations for the three categories of awards. The board had a difficult time narrowing it down to the number of people on the ballot. There were so many qualified people and organizations,” said Gary Virginia, board president of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee. There are also three Pink Brick nominees. The faux award is given by Pride each year to someone who has caused significant harm to the LGBT community.

Courtesy SF Pride

Leah Neaderthal

Leanne Pittsford

Virginia said the number of qualified nominees “made it very challenging for the board, but ultimately, we feel like we chose individuals and organizations who represent the best of our community,” while the Pink Brick nominees especially reflect what’s happening internationally. Results from public polling will be reviewed and certified by Pride’s board and will be published no later than April 8. As usual, the nominees are made up of a wide array of community activists.

{ FIRST OF TWO SECTIONS }

Rick Gerharter

John Weber

Courtesy SF Pride

Kortney Ryan-Ziegler

Individual grand marshal nominees

Brian Basinger has run AIDS Housing Alliance/San Francisco since he founded the group 10 years ago. He’s led the charge to open an LGBT-welcoming homeless shelter in the city, among other efforts. He also co-founded the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Youth Alliance when he was 17 and the Freedom to Marry Task Force of Northern California in 1995. See page 6 >>

<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 27-March 5, 2014

LGBT couples face easier tax season by Matthew S. Bajko

ather than file their 2013 tax return last spring, Jeanne Rizzo and Pali Cooper kept filing for extensions with the Internal Revenue Service to delay the inevitable as long as possible. The Tiburon couple, which married in 2008, was first waiting to see how the U.S. Supreme Court would rule in a lawsuit seeking federal recognition for same-sex marriages. When the court released its decision in late June, striking down a section of the Defense of Marriage Act, it opened the door for federal agencies to review how they treated married same-sex couples. Eager to see how the IRS would implement the court’s ruling, Rizzo and Cooper continued to push back when they needed to file their taxes for fiscal year 2012. “We kept filing extensions with the IRS because we were waiting for their ruling. We waited until October 13, a few days before the final deadline to file, just to irritate them,” said Rizzo. In late August the IRS and U.S. Department of the Treasury announced it would treat same-sex couples that legally married in jurisdictions that recognize their marriages as married for federal tax purposes. The agencies also announced married LGBT couples could amend their 2010, 2011, and 2012 tax returns and seek refunds if they overpaid their taxes because

they weren’t allowed to file as married for those years. The refunds could be substantial for those couples eligible for tax deductions and credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit. For 2013 the credit is worth up to $6,044. “It is a change for almost every gay couple in the country. Depending on what state you are in, there might be a change to your state taxes as well,” said Joseph Henchman, the vice president for state projects at the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research think tank in Washington, Rick Gerharter D.C. “Being able to file jointly means there will be a little bit less Jeanne Rizzo, left, and Pali Cooper paperwork. In a lot of cases it will attended the recent 10th anniversary probably even save them money.” celebration of the “Winter of Love” at Since they had waited to file San Francisco City Hall. their 2012 returns, Rizzo and Cooper were able to file as marples in a number of states, including ried and saw their bill from their tax California. preparer decrease. No longer did But the process for determining their accountant need to create four how to split a couple’s income was tax returns for the women in order so laborious that online tax filing to file their federal and state taxes. services, such as Intuit’s TurboTax, “It came out very close in terms were unable to handle the returns of how much we paid in taxes. It for those LGBT couples impacted. did save us on accounting fees,” said Many same-sex couples resorted to Rizzo. using accountants to help them figCalifornia has long allowed marure out their returns and faced bills ried same-sex couples, as well as close to $1,000 or more as well as those in domestic partnerships, to having to pay additional taxes. file their state tax returns as marDue to the IRS decision last year, ried. Since the 2010 tax season the TurboTax is not only welcoming IRS has recognized community back same-sex couples as clients this property for registered domestic year, the company has created an partners and married same-sex coueasy-to-use online tool to help married same-sex couples determine

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if they are owed refunds due to overpaying their taxes since 2010. “You can do it on your own and we give you the three years of tax software for free,” said Lisa Greene-Lewis, a CPA and the TurboTax blog editor. “If you need help, our credentialed tax experts will do it. The cost is $99 per amended return.” TurboTax has also updated its software to handle married samesex couple’s federal returns. It asks couples to specify they are a married same-sex couple not only to determine their federal return but also for figuring out their state income tax returns. “We are always dealing with tax law changes so it is easy for us to make those changes,” said Greene-Lewis. “With states, we keep in close contact with state revenue departments so we can update our software to be in compliance with those laws.” Just how many married same-sex couples will benefit from the IRS’ decision is difficult to ascertain. Data collection on married LGBT couples is limited and differs by state. Last June the Pew Research Center estimated there were at least 71,165 married same-sex couples in the U.S. The Williams Institute, an LGBT think tank at UCLA, has estimated there are at least 114,100 married same-sex couples living in the U.S. As the Bay Area Reporter noted in December, California does not record information on the gender

of married couples and, therefore, it is not known how many samesex married couples reside in the Golden State. An estimated 18,000 same-sex couples did marry in 2008 during the brief period when such marriages were legal that year in California. San Francisco officials have begun tracking the number of samesex couples marrying in their county. During the period of Friday, June 28, 2013, when same-sex marriages resumed in California, and Tuesday, February 11, 2014, the AssessorRecorder’s office tallied 2,661 selfreported same-sex marriage licenses that had been filed. (Some couples opt for confidential marriage licenses, which do not show up in the public tally.) Because the IRS ruled it would not allow domestic partners to file as if they were married, city officials believe many of the couples that sought to marry before the end of 2013 were domestic partners seeking to take advantage of the new tax rules for married same-sex couples. “If you are in a domestic partnership, it might be a good time to think about taking the plunge and going for marriage as that opens up the door to being able to file jointly at the federal level,” the Tax Foundation’s Henchman advised. Married same-sex couples who may encounter more confusion this tax season are those that live in one of the 22 states that don’t recognize same-sex marriage and require a person’s state tax filing status to See page 3 >>

Lutherans install first trans pastor by David-Elijah Nahmod

Lutheran will be to continue opening doors. transgender person who “We take the name Grace runs a ministry for the seriously, so we will be dohomeless was installed last ing outreach to people of all weekend as the spiritual leader shapes and sizes,” Rohrer said. at Grace Evangelical Lutheran “The congregation is enthusiChurch of San Francisco, makastic about welcoming everying them the first trans leader one, particularly those who of a Lutheran congregation. have been lied to and told they The February 22 service for are not good enough to be part the Reverend Megan Rohrer at of a faith community. We even the Sunset district chapel was want people who feel uncomwell-attended. fortable stepping into a church Congregants joyfully took to join us for our weekly worpart in the service, which inship and “Bible Study That cluded praise songs set to the Doesn’t Suck” livestreams.” Jane Philomen Cleland music of the Beatles. Dubbed Beyond work at Grace, Beatles Mass, the lyrics were Britney Wheat, left, holds a booklet as pastor Rohrer is involved with Night written by Rohrer, sung to the Susan Strouse of First United Lutheran Ministry. beat of well-known tunes like Church, right, installs the Reverend “This is a group of pastors “Across the Universe” and “Let Megan Rohrer, center, as pastor of Grace who provide a presence on it Be.” The congregation sang Evangelical Lutheran Church. the streets of San Francisco “The Meal” to the tune of “Hey from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.,” Rohrer Jude,” in preparation for receivsaid. “The Night Ministry ing communion. As the congrealso operates a crisis line. The tors and faith leaders from diverse gation sang and clapped, Rohrer held ministry is celebrating its 50th anfaiths at a retreat hosted by the up the bread and wine for all to see. niversary this year and was founded Center of Lesbian and Gay Studies “The worship that we used at by a group of Episcopal, Lutheran, in Berkeley,” Rohrer said. “We talk the installation was created for Presbyterian and Methodist pastors about how we can support and an evening worship at St. Aidan’s who were working with homeless learn from each other, and the best Episcopal,” Rohrer, 33, explained. youth in the Tenderloin.” practices for sharing our stories, ad“In hope of attracting young people Rohrer added that the Night vocating for trans individuals and and those new to the church, I creMinistry visits LGBT bars throughour own employment needs. There ated a Lady Gaga Mass. The service out the city and provides care and may be many more than that, but gained a lot of attention, and I was support to the drag court system. some people choose not to be open able to share it at congregations Rohrer is happy to be a part of about their transgender status after around the country. Many of the history. they transition. This is why I use young people knew the tunes, but “I am honored to be Grace’s pasthe word openly transgender in my the older generation had a difficult tor and to be part of this historic identification.” time. I created the Beatles Mass benew opportunity for transgender Transgender pastors, Rohrer said, cause the tunes were recognized by pastors,” Rohrer said. “For over a serve a very special need. both older and younger members decade I have been advocating and “Many transgender pastors and and participants often leave the serworking toward a time when LGBT faith leaders work in specialized minvice feeling uplifted.” individuals would be welcome in istry to support vulnerable populaThe reverend, who prefers the the pews and behind the pulpits. tions,” Rohrer said. “When it comes pronoun they, has been opening Despite all my prayers, I never exto faithfully serving LGBT individudoors for years. In 2006, Rohrer was pected to see this kind of change als or the homeless, being transgenthe first transgender pastor to be orwithin my lifetime.”t der is often an asset. Very few openly dained by the Lutheran church. transgender pastors are able to find In addition to their duties at work leading a congregation. I beFor more information on Grace Grace Lutheran, Rohrer is involved Lutheran, visit http://sfconfelca. lieve this will change as society beorg/grace-lutheran-church/. For in transgender spiritual outreach. comes more welcoming and underRohrer’s website, visit http://rev“I meet annually with a group standing of transgender issues.” rohrer.blogspot.com. of about 150 transgender pasPart of Rohrer’s work at Grace

Community News>>

February 27-March 5, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Three plead not guilty in fatal home invasion by Seth Hemmelgarn

hree people arrested in recent days in connection with a fatal home invasion in November in San Francisco’s Portola neighborhood pleaded not guilty this week to murder, robbery, and other charges. Blanca Torres, who’s 21 and gay, and her brother Nestor Torres, 25, of Oakland; and Clifton Thomas, 24, of San Francisco, were charged with murder, robbery, residential burglary, conspiracy to commit robbery, and kidnapping Tuesday, February 25 in San Francisco Superior Court before Judge Ethan P. Schulman. Thomas faces an additional allegation of personally using the weapon that caused the murder. The medical examiner’s office has identified the victim as Hung Huynh, 49. All three defendants remain in custody and bail for each has been set at $2 million. Both Torreses’ wives were at the arraignment Tuesday morning, at which the Torreses appeared, but declined to comment. The complaint against Thomas, which Schulman read in court at his arraignment Tuesday afternoon, says that on November 5 Thomas and the co-defendants got into a 1996 Toyota Camry and drove to the Yale Street home. When they got there, Nestor Torres got out of the car to “sell electronic devices” to Huynh, who was

Tax season

From page 2

mirror the one on their federal return. Those states have issued guidance on the issue, but LGBT residents in those states may encounter headaches in filing their state taxes this year. “In those states you are going to

Courtesy SFPD

Blanca Torres

then struck “with a blunt force object,” a paver, said Schulman. It’s alleged that Thomas personally used the paver, which is a brick-like stone often used for landscaping. After the attack, the defendants got back in the car and went to a residence in the 200 block of Arleta Avenue, according to the complaint. Schulman said property taken during the incident included electronic devices, money, and a cellphone. Like the Torreses, Thomas appeared in court and pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations through his attorney. According to a police summary of the incident released days after it ochave to go through a few hoops. That may leave a bad taste for some people who won’t be able to file jointly at the state level,” said Henchman. “Just as the federal dummy returns in the past were a pain for couples, now potentially there will be pain going forward until those states recognize samesex marriage.”t

curred, officers responded at 6:17 a.m. to the Yale Street home and found Huynh “covered in blood, laying in the entryway of [the] residence.” He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said in a news release this week that they arrested the Torreses February 19. On February 21, police said, patrol officers arrested Thomas as he walked in the city’s Visitacion Valley neighborhood. Asked after Tuesday’s hearing about how Blanca Torres is doing, Peter Fitzpatrick, her attorney, said, “Imagine anybody falsely accused of homicide, how they would be doing,” adding that she is “panicked.” Deputy Public Defender Phoenix Streets, who’s representing Nestor Torres, wasn’t immediately available after Tuesday’s hearing. George Borges, Thomas’s attorney, declined to comment. Assistant District Attorney Eric Flemming was the prosecutor who appeared at Tuesday’s arraignments. Police had also arrested Jasmine Ward, 34, of San Francisco, in connection with the case, but Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said Tuesday that Ward wasn’t being formally charged because “at this point there is a lack of corroboration” of the evidence. The next court date is March 13 for a status update. (Although police listed Blanca Torres’s age as 21, authorities listed conflicting birthdates.)t

The Tax Foundation’s guidance for same-sex couples can be downloaded at http://taxfoundation.org/article/states-provideincome-tax-filing-guidance-samesex-couples. To access TurboTax’s refund calculator for married same-sex couples, visit https://turbotax. intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/ taxcaster/past/.

I may not have nine lives,

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<< Open Forum

t City should lighten up on crack pipes

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 27-March 5, 2014

Volume 44, Number 9 February 27-March 5, 2014 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • David Guarino Peter Hernandez • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • David Lamble Michael McAllister • Michael McDonagh David-Elijah Nahmod • Elliot Owen Paul Parish • Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Philip Ruth • Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Ed Walsh • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION T. Scott King PRODUCTION/DESIGN Jay Cribas PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland Rick Gerharter • Lydia Gonzales Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Steven Underhill Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge Christine Smith

mails between the mayor’s office and health department officials on the subject of making crack pipes available to drug users as an HIV prevention tool reveal a city family that is fractured and overly concerned about the reaction from conservative media outlets. That’s surprising given that San Francisco is not known for backing down on issues just because it might supply right-wing pundits with material to fuel their fake outrage. In fact, the phrase “San Francisco Values” has been proudly used by politicians here as a way to champion equality, fairness, and the “San Francisco way.” There wouldn’t have been the “Winter of Love” 10 years ago if then-Mayor Gavin Newsom had listened to then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who actually said on Meet the Press that he feared riots breaking out because gay and lesbian couples were marrying. The city’s long-standing reputation for forward thinking informed our groundbreaking response to the AIDS epidemic from the beginning. Decades ago when President Ronald Reagan wouldn’t even utter the word, city leaders developed a model program that brought together practicing doctors and their patients and enlisted nonprofit agencies to fill the void with untold number of volunteers and donors. What happened to that spirit? We’re not sure, in part because Health Director Barbara Garcia and mayoral spokeswoman Christine Falvey won’t answer our questions. But ever

by Andy Chu and Andy Scheer

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[Editor’s note: As part of the Bay Area Reporter’s efforts to keep the LGBT community informed about important policy changes, we invited Andy Scheer, MSW, medical social worker with San Francisco City Clinic and Andy Chu, Esq., legal director at Positive Resource Center, to offer their thoughts around the impact of the Affordable Care Act.]

LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad, Esq.

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Fox News thought about anything? And why should this be a litmus test for public policy? We’re not talking about Golden Gate Park becoming a crack haven. We’re talking about a relatively small number of drug users obtaining clean pipes to help stop transmission of the HIV virus. San Francisco already provides clean syringes to drug users – the needle exchange program is now a routine part of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s work and has helped countless people over the years – and harm reduction advocates say crack pipes should be provided as well. SFAF distributes crack kits at its syringe sites, and so is already leading on the issue. While the kits don’t contain a pipe, they do include sterile water, caps that can help protect people’s lips, and other equipment, and are paid for with a mix of public and private dollars. Rather than obsess over what Fox News thinks, officials should frame the issue as it is: a public health need. Preventing HIV saves the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment costs. At a minimum, the HPPC should proceed with gathering data on crack pipe distribution, which has been done in other cities. Unfortunately, data isn’t available on its effectiveness in these cities, so perhaps San Francisco can take the lead by developing a pilot program and tracking the data. Previous city officials weren’t afraid to try new strategies when confronted with public health emergencies. Today’s leaders must be equally progressive and willing to try new programs. San Francisco has demonstrated fearlessness in the past and there is no reason to stop now.t

ACA is positive change for HIVers

ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small

NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

since we broke the story last month that the HIV Prevention Planning Council expressed support for exploring the possibility of distributing small crack pipes to drug users, City Hall and the Department of Public Health have clamped down. We still haven’t received a direct answer as to why Garcia and Mayor Ed Lee oppose the idea. Without their clarification, opposition seems rooted in fears about how Fox News will report on the issue, as evidenced by Falvey’s January 24 email to Garcia and other health department staffers. “Can you clear up with KPIX – don’t want any Fox News SF Headlines on this,” Falvey wrote, referring to a story local station KPIX was following up on after the Bay Area Reporter’s initial article. When have San Francisco leaders worried about what

ndy Chu: Mr. Scheer, this whole health care reform process has been very exciting for some and yet many, many folks find it to be tiring. For some reason, I always find you to be jazzed when you talk about the Affordable Care Act. Why is that? I mean ... health insurance! I’ve seen fetishes come and go in San Francisco, but a health insurance fetish ... really? What is it that gets you going about this topic? Andy Scheer: I wonder which color hankie I should flag for my Obamacare fetish? (laughs) You’re right, the constant spin and bickering about the ACA by politicos and talking heads can get exhausting. In the end, the monumental change that is happening to health care in the U.S. is something that people with HIV need to pay attention to. For the first time ever, HIVers – heck, people with any pre-existing condition – will likely be able to purchase health insurance on the general open market without the coverage denials or exorbitant premiums. That’s huge. Chu: It’s really fantastic and yet, I think that this positive step forward for HIVers has been overshadowed a little by the clunky rollout of Healthcare.gov. Scheer: That is an excellent point, Andy. Healthcare.gov got a lot of bad press and unfortunately, it overshadowed the successes that we here in California have been seeing with the CoveredCA website. Big take-away: http://www. Healthcare.gov – the site for the state markets run by the feds – is not http://www.CoveredCA.com. So the next time you hear an anti-Obamacare tirade about Healthcare.gov being a mess, please ignore it. CoveredCA.com is up, it’s functioning, and people are getting insurance through it. Chu: Being able to purchase health insurance is one thing, and paying for it is another. As we know, living with HIV brings along little expenses here and there that can add up.

High rents in San Francisco have our budgets stretched thin already and adding on another monthly bill can really strap HIVers. Insurance through CoveredCA.com comes with a price tag. Is there any help out there to reduce costs? Scheer: Look at you, giving me great lead-ins to my learning points. The answer is “yes.” If you make below about $46,000 per year, the feds are going to give you help that they label a “premium tax credit.” The less you make, the bigger the credit. In addition, if you make $50,000 or less per year and have HIV, it is likely that you are already enrolled in the state of California’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program to pay for your HIV meds. People who qualify for ADAP who don’t get insurance through their employer can get their monthly health insurance premiums paid for through a program called OAHIPP (see below). You might have some out of pocket expenses for office visits or lab work, but you should not have to pay monthly premiums and you’ll still have full, comprehensive health insurance coverage. Chu: It sounds a little confusing, but definitely like a good way to go. I’m guessing that you’ll tell me to speak with my social worker about navigating this process if I need help. (Both laugh.) Now, California is one of the 26 states that are doing Medicaid expansion, yes? Scheer: Yes, and in California, we call the expansion “MAGI MediCal” (modified adjusted gross income). If you make below $15,856 a year you can sign up for this new type of MediCal. Traditional MediCal comes into play when someone is disabled or in their old age and it requires that they not have more than $2,000 in assets for a single person. The new MAGI MediCal, however, is based on income and does not require you to be disabled or without assets. Chu: What if someone is disabled or retired and already has MediCal, and/or Medicare? What do they need to do? Scheer: Generally, nothing. If you’re already enrolled in one of these programs because you’re disabled, on Calworks, or for another reason, you can stay on these programs. People who are already on Medicare due to age or disability are not eligible for MAGI MediCal or Covered California policies. Some people who are over the resource limit or can’t afford the

traditional MediCal programs can actually qualify for MAGI MediCal. And again, there is nothing that you need to do if you already get affordable insurance through your employer. To learn more about HIV and Healthcare Reform, please visit the following: Covered California: http://www. CoveredCA.com or (800) 300-1506; SF Benefits Net, 1440 Harrison Street, M-F 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; www.HIVHealthReform.org; www. PositiveInform.org; CA state Office of AIDS (for information and enrollment forms for OA-HIPP); http://www.Healthcare.gov/glossary, an excellent glossary of commonly-used, often confusing terms related to health insurance and health care reform.

Basic information

Everyone’s situation is different. It is very important that people reach out to a social worker, inform him/herself with some research, turn to a community-based agency working with people with HIV, and/or attend a community forum to ask questions. March 31 is the deadline for open enrollment for Covered California. If that date passes and you’re not insured, it is likely that you’re going to get hit with a fine when you pay your taxes in 2015. If your employer does not provide health insurance, they may be contributing to a Health Reimbursement Account. You can use the money to pay for office visits and other out of pocket medical expenses. Don’t let this money go to waste. It is yours to use. Have a U Visa? Were you granted asylum? If you answer yes to these questions or have another form of legal immigration status, you may qualify for the ACA. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for MAGI MediCal or Covered California policies, but are eligible for Healthy San Francisco, HIV care through Ryan Whitefunded clinics, and HIV meds through ADAP. Before you purchase a plan on CoveredCA. com, be sure to find out which plan your doctor or clinic accepts. Call the doctor or clinic before you buy. Also, review the plan’s drug formulary to ensure it includes the meds you need at a cost you can afford. The OA-HIPP program can help with monthly premiums. If you earn between $15,856 and $22,980, enroll in an “Enhanced Silver Plan.” Those with incomes between $23,095 and $50,000 should enroll in a “Platinum Plan.”t

Letters >>

February 27-March 5, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Thoughts on the racial divide

In response to Kevin Bard’s column, [“No room for black gay progressives,” Guest Opinion, February 20]: if a board member cannot commit to 100 percent then he is justifiably dismissed. There’s no affirmative action for business deadlines whereby hundreds of thousands of people depend on you. Your Antebellum slavery comment is tiresome. Move on. The beauty of education is that we all speak the same language. I’m sure that I share your rage at all employers like Google who have zero Mexican American and others in quality positions. Jose Patrick Thometz Long Beach, California

Pleased with direction of SF Pride

I am elated with the news of San Francisco Pride 2014 and the positive and forward-thinking changes taking place. The addition of George Ridgely as the new executive director, plus the ad-

dition of Michelle Meow and Don Wagda as board members, show healthy improvements in the governance of the agency [“Ridgely brings event experience to SF Pride,” and “Expanding SF Pride board honors Manning,” February 20]. The brightest news is this year’s honorary grand marshal status to Chelsea Manning. I feel that SF Pride board President Gary Virginia has clearly handled this situation with tact and aplomb. His very words, “we’re publicly apologizing” (to Manning) are exactly what must be said and done. After numerous years of missteps, it is good to see SF Pride back on track. Remedies such as honoring Manning are important. Apologies are also necessary. Perhaps in the months to come, we will also see an apology for the former management’s inclusion of Willie Brown as a grand marshal in 2012, an obvious misstep. Thank you, Gary Virginia, and all board members of SF Pride for all you are doing this year. Joe Wicht San Francisco

CA House candidate seeks Bay Area, LGBT support by Matthew S. Bajko

entral Valley beekeeper Michael Eggman is looking to follow his big sister Susan Talamantes Eggman, a lesbian state Assemblywoman from Stockton, into elective office. He is running for a Central Valley House seat against two-term incumbent Congressman Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) and has turned to the Bay Area for support. The district covers the cities of Tracy, Manteca, Modesto, and Turlock and includes a large portion of the northwestern expanse of Henry W. Coe State Park south of San Jose. Many of its newer residents commute to jobs in the Bay Area. At 38.4 percent of registered voters, Democrats now nearly equal registered Republicans in the district, who hold a 1 percent advantage. In the 2012 election, Denham won reelection to his seat with an advantage of more than 5 percent of the vote over his Democratic challenger. Despite political pundits listing the race as Denham’s to lose, Eggman argues California’s 10th Congressional District seat is a “true pick-up opportunity” for Democrats, who need to capture a net gain of 17 seats in November to retake the majority in the House. Eggman, 49, is hopeful LGBT residents in particular pay attention to his race, with pro-gay legislation stalled in the GOP-controlled House. Denham, 46, earned a zero score on the most recent Congressional Scorecard for LGBT bills issued by the Human Rights Campaign. “To have a Tea Party congressman over the hill should concern the Bay Area,” Eggman told the Bay Area Reporter during a recent interview while in San Francisco to meet with potential donors. The Democratic political newcomer has held a number of local fundraisers in order to boost his campaign coffers and will be in Silicon Valley for an event in April. As of the end of

On the web Online content this week includes the Bay Area Reporter’s online columns Political Notes and Wedding Bells Ring; a bonus Jock Talk column; the Out in the World column; and articles about efforts to reboot the San Jose AIDS walk; and a blood drive in San Francisco to draw attention to the FDA’s policies. www.ebar.com.

Eggman for Congress campaign/Mika Cajucom

Almond farmer and beekeeper Michael Eggman, the younger brother of lesbian state Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman, is running for Congress.

2013, Eggman reported raising just shy of $385,000, while Denham had a haul of more than $1.4 million. He has received backing from the Central Valley Stonewall Democratic Club and financial support from a number of LGBT leaders, including gay Congressman Jared Polis (D-Colorado), a hobbyist beekeeper; gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco); and out state Assembly members Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco). “It is easy to elect progressive people in the Bay Area. It is a different story when talking about the Central Valley,” said his sister Talamantes Eggman, a former Stockton City Councilwoman. “If we don’t reduce disparities and address issues in the Central Valley then we are not walking the talk of our politics and our values.” Eggman married his college sweetheart, Stacey, and the couple has two daughters, Hanalei and Saylor. They had been living in Hawaii and returned to California a decade ago following the death of his mother, whose family immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico. His father’s family came to California in the 1920s to escape the dustbowl in Oklahoma at the time. “Both families came here for a better life,” said Eggman. Eggman and his family live outside the district in Kingsburg, south of Fresno, but he also has a home in Turlock within the 10th Congressional District. The family farm is also in Turlock, where Eggman oversees 40 acres of almond trees and manages over 1,000 beehives. The seed for his congressional bid was planted in 2007 when

he attended the inauguration of Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton), who had defeated the Republican incumbent, Richard Pombo, in the 2006 election. “I was busting his chops about the problems I see with my bees ... how I see needs and problems but don’t see solutions coming from Congress. He told me to quit complaining and do something about it,” recalled Eggman. “He said I should retire my congressman because he is one of the reasons why they can’t come up with solutions. I protested that I am a farmer not a politician.” Last year, Talamantes Eggman approached her brother about taking on Denham after learning his former Democratic opponent, Jose Hernandez, wasn’t going to run again. “He is a farmer with good progressive politics. What could be better?” she said. Should he win the seat, Eggman said he would seek to become a sponsor of the Employment NonDiscrimination Act, which would ban workplace harassment against LGBT employees. He opposes seeing the Department of Justice go after medical marijuana dispensaries, saying, “We have bigger fish to fry with limited resources.” But on the issue of legalizing marijuana use in the state, Eggman said it is something that needs further study. A key issue for him in the race has been raising the minimum wage. He has attacked Denham for not supporting increases to workers’ base pay when he served in the state Legislature and now in Congress. Reacting to President Barack Obama’s call for increasing the federal minimum wage in his State of the Union speech last month, Denham tweeted, “My home state and @BarackObama’s both have above avg. minimum wage rates, yet higher unemployment & glaring differences in wealth.” During his interview with the B.A.R. Eggman would not say how much the minimum wage should be set at – California’s now stands at $8 per hour while federally it is $7.25 – only saying, “We need a livable wage.” He is one of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s 23 “jumpstart candidates” it is backing this election cycle, highlighting Eggman on its website and directing donors to his campaign. Based on his fundraising totals so far, Eggman’s support from national Democrats appears to be lacking. “It is frustrating,” said his sister Talamantes Eggman. “It will just make victory that much sweeter. We in the Central Valley are used to working hard for things.” For more information about Eggman and his platform, visit www.eggmanforcongress.com.t

<< Community News

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 27-March 5, 2014

SF Pride

From page 1

For years, he’s also been advocating for the rights of low-income renters in the city, especially recently as concern has grown around people being evicted from their homes. “On behalf of the 2,100 homeless LGBTQ community members who are homeless and the tens of thousands of us who are clinging to hope for our future in San Francisco. On behalf of the countless LGBTQ community members around the globe facing persecution today, who need San Francisco to remain a beacon of hope for a future world where they can be at home by being themselves, to color our world with a pride, I welcome this nomination and invite you to vote for me and my comrade in the struggle for housing rights – Tommi Avicolli Mecca,” Basinger said in a Facebook message. [More information on Avicolli Mecca is available later in this list.] Lenny Broberg is an out gay San Francisco police officer, the 1992 International Mr. Leather, a competitive softball player, and a “highly sought after” emcee and auctioneer, Pride said in a news release. Broberg

regularly helps fundraise for groups including AIDS Emergency Fund and the Human Rights Campaign. He’s currently an inspector assigned to the San Francisco Police Department Gang Task Force. “I was happy and a bit overwhelmed,” Broberg said in a Facebook message when asked for his reaction to being nominated. “I am fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in some wonderful events, meet caring and compassionate people and get to make a bit of a difference in someone’s life. To have those efforts acknowledged and recognized by one’s peers and community is truly special.” Judy Grahn is the author of the memoir A Simple Revolution: the Making of an Activist Poet, which chronicles the first 40 years of her life, from her first love to arrest and shaming in the military and on to her founding the Women’s Press Collective in Oakland. “Her pro-lesbian, pro-woman, pro-LGBTQ, pro-people’s liberation writing helped fuel several movements,” Pride’s news release said. Miss Major Griffin-Gracy has been a transgender activist, instigator, and community orga-

nizer for more than 40 years and is currently executive director of the Transgender GenderVariant Intersex Justice Project. “Miss Major has worked tirelessly for social justice and the human rights of transgender women of color,” according to Pride. Jewlyes Gutierrez, 16, is a transgender student at Hercules Middle/ High School who was charged with battery after she reportedly fought back in a schoolyard altercation that came after she had allegedly suffered long-term peer bullying. Her alleged attackers were not similarly charged. A judge recently ordered Gutierrez to enter a conflict resolution program. Like Basinger, Tommi Avicolli Mecca is also a longtime housing rights advocate. Avicolli Mecca works for the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco and has written or edited four books, the most recent being Smash the Church, Smash the State: The Early Years of Gay Liberation. Melanie Nathan is an attorney and the founder of Private Courts, a global human rights advocacy firm based in the Bay Area. Nathan is known for her advocacy blog http:// www.oblogdeeoblogda.me and for her pro bono work, which includes assisting persecuted LGBT Africans

to escape from countries where they are criminalized. She’s also established a rescue fund for LGBT Africans seeking refuge. “I was so honored to receive the nomination and thank SF Pride,” Nathan said in a Facebook message. “I hope that it will help bring more attention to the international LGBT issues our community should be more cognizant of, especially in Africa.” Leah Neaderthal and Leanne Pittsford are also nominated for individual community grand marshal. Neaderthal is the chief marketing officer at Start Somewhere, which offers design, database, and technical support to groups. Pride called her “a marketing guru who’s obsessed with helping social good organizations succeed through great design and smart technology.” Pittsford, Start Somewhere’s founder and CEO, assists nonprofits with growth. John Weber is vice board chair of the Imperial Council of San Francisco Inc. and has been honored by the Black Coalition on AIDS for his fundraising work. Among other recent activities, Weber lent his voice to a rally honoring slain Ugandan LGBT activist David Kato. Rounding out Pride’s list of nominees, Kortney Ryan Ziegler, Ph.D., is an Oakland-based award-winning

artist and writer who directed the documentary Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen. He also runs the blog, blac (k) ademic. The Advocate magazine recently named Ziegler one of the Top 40 Under 40 LGBT Activists. He also founded Trans*H4CK, which spotlights trans-created tech and transled startups.

Organizational nominees

Bob Basker Post 315 of the American Legion claims to be the only congressionally recognized, chaptered American Legion Post in the United States named after an openly gay World War II combat Army veteran. Post 315 is also a Pride community partner. The GLBT National Help Center, which is based in San Francisco, provides peer-support, community connections, and resource information to people from across the country with questions regarding sexual orientation and gender identity. The group operates two national hotlines, among other services. Since it was founded 40 years ago, the Grand Ducal Council of San Francisco Inc. has provided diverse areas of the community with charitable and personal support. See page 10 >>

Edward Huser, aka Sister Barbi Mitzvah, dies by Cynthia Laird

dward Huser, better known in the community by his alter ego Sister Barbi Mitzvah, died Sunday, February 23 in Portland, Oregon. He was 52. The cause of death was an apparent heart attack, according to his partner, Jefe Kraybill. “I can’t say enough about him,”

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Kraybill told the Bay Area Reporter in a brief phone call Wednesday. “I share in the grief of everyone and I know he’ll be missed.” Kraybill said the couple had moved to Portland after living for a time in Santa Fe to help care for his mother. Mr. Huser had recently started a job with a software company. “He was just thrilled,” Kraybill said. “Then it just hit us on Sunday.” Kraybill said that he and Mr. Huser were engaged. “We kept missing states,” he said, adding that they were in New Mexico before that state achieved marriage equality. They had been planning to marry in Washington state. As Sister Barbi, Mr. Huser contributed much to the organization of drag nuns. He had been involved in Pink Saturday and helped produce the street party in 2009, the year Michael Jackson died. According to a biography provided by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Barbi was one of the founders of the Russian River House. While in the Bay Area, Barbi also worked with the Alexander Hamilton Post 448 of the American Legion to resurrect the Sisters’ Bingo games in the Green Room at the War Memorial Building. During her tenure with the San Francisco House, Barbi acted as mentor and guide to potential members. She also worked with new houses of the Sisters. Barbi teamed with late night host Stephen Colbert to help sponsor bald eagles at the San Francisco Zoo as part of the California bald eagle breeding program. After Mr. Huser relocated to

Rick Gerharter

Sister Barbi Mitzvah

Portland, he took on a more active role with the Sisters’ Portland House. Mr. Huser, in his capacity as Sister Barbi and as Edward, was a board associate for Folsom Street Events, the organization that produces the Folsom Street Fair, Up Your Alley Fair, and other parties catering to the leather community. Demetri Moshoyannis, executive director of Folsom Street Events, told the B.A.R. that Mr. Huser was a great help to the organization. “He took the lead on running our donation gates for years – maybe as many as 17 years,” Moshoyannis said. “He was a phenomenally gifted and caring man who will be missed by everyone here. We’re just devastated.” In addition to Kraybill, who is also known as Sister Celeste L. Powers, Mr. Huser is survived by his adopted parents and sister in Wisconsin.t

Obituaries >> Gary Cann October 27, 1962 – February 7, 2014 Gary Cann passed away in Arcata, California on February 7, 2014. Having lived with HIV for decades, a debilitating case of shingles and a weakening heart finally proved too much for his body to bear. A longtime resident of San Francisco, he worked for several years in the Castro at Moby Dick, where he was best known by his nickname, Debbie. Gary was valedictorian of his graduating

class at Cloverdale High School in 1979 and attended San Francisco State University and Heald College. Subsequently, he enjoyed a successful career as a law librarian in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He was also a talented oboist and had a lifelong passion for the arts – particularly opera, musical theatre, and classical music. Gary watched with pride the numerous accomplishments of his niece, Melissa Cann. He was predeceased by his parents, Phil and Barbara (Foster) Cann, and by his sister, Deon. Donations in honor of Gary’s life will be gratefully accepted by Maitri Compassionate Care, 401 Duboce Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94117.

Sports>>

February 27-March 5, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Warriors exec lauds Collins’s signing by Roger Brigham

hen David Kopay became the first prominent American male athlete to come out of the closet in 1975, he had no social media to help spread the word, he did not reach out to a high-profile gay rights organization to counsel him in his revelation, and he did not tell his story with a cover essay in Sports Illustrated. A vastly different world beckons Jason Collins, the first player in any of the four major American professional men’s team sports to come out. He was en route Sunday, February 23 to Staples Center in Los Angeles to sign a 10-day National Basketball Association contract with the Brooklyn Nets – they were the New York Nets in Kopay’s day, playing on Long Island in the now-defunct American Basketball Association – when his smartphone (not offered commercially until 1993) gave him a text message (not offered until 1994) of congratulations from Rick Welts, president and chief of operations for the Golden State Warriors, for making history. Welts was one of the developers behind the scenes who helped to make the NBA the multimedia circus it is today. He was working with the Phoenix Suns in 2011 when he became the first major executive in any league front office to come out; he joined the Warriors’ front office

later that year. Now he’s on the advisory board of You Can Play, an initiative to help wipeout barriers of homophobia in sports. “I’m not expecting because Jason did this, the floodgates are going to open,” Welts said in a phone interview the day after Collins made his first appearance with the Nets. “If you had told me in 2011 that this would happen like this today, I wouldn’t have believed it. I’m proud of the Nets for making this happen. They did it for all the right reasons.” Those reasons were about making the Nets stronger defensively – not about generating headlines for a minor personnel transaction, Welts said. Welts said Jason Kidd, coach of the Nets, “felt like this would be a really good basketball move for his team. He knows Jason, obviously. They played together. So I think the decision was made for all the right reasons, and anyone who’s trying to cast it any other way is probably a little short on their facts.” Collins’s scoring line in his debut might be unimpressive – five fouls, two steals, and two rebounds in less than 11 minutes of play – but he provided needed relief and defense, and the Nets outscored the Lakers by eight points while he was on the court. Welts admitted having mixed feelings about how best to express his reaction to the signing.

GLBT Historical Society at SF expo compiled by Cynthia Laird

he GLBT Historical Society will join more than 40 other San Francisco cultural and preservation organizations at the annual San Francisco History Expo this weekend at the Old Mint building, 88 5th Street (Fifth and Mission). The expo runs Saturday, March 1 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, March 2 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sponsored by the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, the expo is open to the public with a $5 sliding scale admission, although no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Participating organizations will display minimuseums from their diverse collections. In addition special presentations and films on local history will be offered. On Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m., the GLBT Historical Society will present “Lost and Found: Searching for LGBT Historic Sites in San Francisco.” Donna Graves, a public historian, and Gerard Koskovich, curator of the GLBT History Museum, will survey queer historic places that San Francisco has lost and will discuss the ways a cityfunded study co-sponsored by the society will help identify sites of LGBT history that still exist. For more information about the expo, visit www.sfhistoryexpo.org.

Protest in SF for Russian concert

The Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia are over but Gays Without Borders and LGBT and feminist activists will protest the country’s anti-gay law outside Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco Monday,

March 3 at 7 p.m. Blogger Michael Petrelis, one of the organizers, wrote that the occasion is a performance that evening by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, under the director of conductor Yuri Temirkanov. Activists have been critical of the Russian anti-gay propaganda law that President Vladimir Putin signed last year. According to Petrelis, Temirkanov is one of the Putin 500 Trustees, a group of prominent Russians who endorsed Putin’s 2012 reelection bid. Participants are welcome and should meet at the corner of Grove Street and Van Ness Avenue.

Supes to vote on Vicki Marlane block

San Francisco supervisors are set to vote on designating a block of Turk Street in honor of the late transgender performer Vicki Marlane. This week District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, who represents the Tenderloin, introduced legislation to add Marlane’s name to the street signs on the 100 block of Turk Street between Jones and Taylor. It is home to the club Aunt Charlie’s, where Marlane performed and hosted a popular drag revue show. Marlane died in 2011 at the age of 76 due to AIDS-related complications. In 2012 the Bay Area Reporter’s Political Notebook suggested renaming that block of Turk as Vicki Marlane Way. In 2013 the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club signed on to the street name honor for Marlane. Seeking a less controversial route, the club opted to press for altering the street signs to include Vicki Marlane in parenthesis below the word Turk rather than officially renaming the street.t

Jane Philomen Cleland

The Warriors’ Rick Welts praised the nets for signing Jason Collins.

“It’s a really big step toward being regarded totally unremarkable, but it is remarkable now because he is the first” openly gay player, Welts said. “Everybody is going to look back at this as a really big moment.”

Welts also said he thought the NBA was probably more ready to sign openly gay players than either Major League Baseball or the National Football League. “The league has created an atmosphere that makes this possible,” he said. “For a very long time, the NBA has had rookie transition training that includes very specific reference to categories in which it will not accept discrimination, including sexual orientation. And this is not like the [NFL prospect] Michael Sam situation: the Nets knew exactly what they are getting. He’s known and respected.” And the NBA made sure teams were prepared, he said. “The NBA has worked hard in every aspect,” Welts said. “The NBA does a better job in creating more diverse opportunities. I think a lot of that is because it emerged a lot later than the NFL and Major League Baseball in popularity. And I think there’s a real leadership factor, too.”

Collins’s twin brother Jarron played for the Phoenix Suns when Welts was there, but Welts thinks at most he has met Jason only once with a hand shake before a game. “We’re text buddies,” he said with a laugh. “It’s going to be interesting to see what happens next,” Welts said. “It’s too early to tell what will happen. A lot of people will be watching Jason’s experience. I think a lot of people will be looking.” He also took a moment to express support for Robbie Rogers, the gay soccer player who came out at about the same time Collins did last year, then signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy shortly thereafter. “I feel bad for Robbie Rogers,” Welts said. “The rest of the world considers soccer the Number One sport. But that’s not the perception in this country.”t For more on the signing of Jason Collins, see the additional Jock Talk column at ebar.com.

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<< Travel

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 27-March 5, 2014

New Orleans mirrors San Francisco on the bayou by Matthew S. Bajko

escending into Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport one is treated to a bird’s eye view of how precariously situated the Big Easy is between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. For planes arriving from the West Coast, the flight path runs parallel to Interstate 10, built on stilts through Bayou Piquant, and the airfield itself appears to emerge out of a bog. It is hard not to recall the deadly flooding Hurricane Katrina unleashed on the Louisiana city. Another jarring sight is seeing the Mercedes-Benz Superdome as you first enter into New Orleans’ central business district. The covered sports arena today shows no signs of the damage it suffered during the 2005 storm when thousands of New Orleanians who had sought shelter inside languished there for days. A first-time visitor to the city, I wasn’t sure what sort of scars from the catastrophic events of nearly a decade ago I would encounter during a weeklong visit in early November. I was in town to attend the annual scientific meeting of the Gerontological Society of America as one of the 2013 MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging Fellowship participants. In the tourist-heavy areas of the French Quarter and the Garden District there are few visible signs of the destruction wrought by Katrina. In fact, due to their location near an oxbow in the Mississippi, they were relatively unscathed. Over the decades the silt from the mighty river built up an earthen barricade that keeps the Mississippi’s waters at bay. A walking path atop the berm leads from the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas at the foot of Canal Street east toward Jackson Square and the famous facade of the CathedralBasilica of St. Louis, King of France with its three steeples hovering over the French Quarter. “It protected the French Quarter from flooding during Hurricane Katrina. The Garden District also escaped major flooding,” said New Orleans native Libby Bollino, a guide with Big Easy Tours, during a walking tour of the Garden District. Exploring the two riverside neighborhoods, with an abundance of coffeehouses, local shops, and vast array of restaurants, New Orleans resembles a bayou version of the City-By-The-Bay. One need only gaze at the streetcars running up Canal Street and Saint Charles Avenue to encounter rolling reminders of San Francisco and its trolley cars along Market Street. The city’s aquarium features displays on local sea life in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Caribbean and South American waterways. It is home to a white alligator, otters, and penguins and will introduce a new Maya Reef turtle exhibit this year. (Tickets cost $22.50 for adults, $16.00 for kids age 2-12.) Explore the culture of the Gulf South at the Historic New Orleans Collection, a museum and research center in the heart of the French Quarter. Most of the exhibitions are free, while docents lead hourlong tours of the seven buildings housed at the site. ($5 for adults, 533 Royal Street, http://www.hnoc.org.) The Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve’s French Quarter Visitor Center offers free exhibits about local food and culture, as well as walking

Matthew S Bajko

New Orleans’ Garden District boasts many beautiful homes with manicured yards.

tours at 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays of the surrounding Vieux Carre, or old square, and its distinctive architecture. (The 25 tickets for the tours are distributed at 9 a.m. on a first-come, first-served basis at 419 Decatur Street, http://www.nps.gov/jela/ french-quarter-site.htm.) Guided tours of the Matthew S Bajko Garden District provide Antique oyster plates on display at a a nice introduction to the history of the Crescent City. New Orleans shop. The two and a half hour excursion takes visitors into Orleans mainstay since the 1950s. the heart of the “American” Waits during peak lunch hours section of New Orleans, so dubbed can stretch up to 20 minutes as the for the suburban laykitchen crew assembles a wide variout of the area built ety of po-boys, from catfish or alin the 1820s for nonligator to crawfish or oyster. (Prices Creole residents who range from $5.95 to $12 or more for felt unwelcome in the the seafood varieties.) French-speaking quarters Fancier surroundings can be of the city. found at The Original Pierre It includes stops at Maspero’s (440 Chartres Street), Anne Rice’s former mansion, the part of the Creole Cuisine home where Jefferson Davis died Restaurant Concepts’ collection in 1889, and the current abodes of of local restaurants. Housed in an actors John Goodman and Sandra historic structure built in 1788, the Bullock. ($25.95 discounted adult dining establishment’s menu featickets can be purchased at http:// tures local staples such as remouwww.bigeasytours.us.) lade, crawfish etouffee, blackened Another featured house is jambalaya and shrimp and grits. the Italianate mansion at 1448 (Dinner and drinks with dessert avFourth Street completed in 1895 erages $45 per person.) for Colonel Robert H. Short. A For a more out of the way dingay couple, interior designer Hal ing spot in the French Quarter Williamson and Dr. Dale Le Blanc, check out Eat New Orleans (900 currently owns the house, famed for Dumaine Street) where gay chefits corn-stalk wrought-iron fence. owner Jarred Zeringue dishes up a Kitty-corner is the beautiful locally-sourced menu influenced by Sully Mansion Bed and Breakfast, his southern Louisiana upbringing. designed by renowned architect It is BYOB, with no corkage fee for Thomas Sully in 1890 for the Rayne the first bottle of wine, and a popuFamily. The three-storied Queen lar brunch spot on weekends. Anne-style home offers eight guest Eat is nearby the French rooms with rates ranging from Quarter’s gay bars, many clustered $124 to $242 per night. (http:// around the 800 block of Bourbon sullymansion.com/) Street, such as the Bourbon Pub and The tour winds down shortly afParade, Cafe Lafitte in Exile, and Oz ter a quick stroll through Lafayette dance club. Nearby on Burgundy Cemetery. Across the street is the Street are the 700 Club and leather turquoise and white Victorian bar the Rawhide, notorious for its home of the famous Commander’s sex-friendly back room area. Palace (1403 Washington Avenue). During my visit it was particuServing up local fare since 1880, the larly strange to wander along the restaurant has a strict dress code straight section of Bourbon Street (though the rules are more relaxed and find wall-to-wall revelers yet during the day) and is known for its encounter sparse crowds at the gay two-course lunches starting at $16 venues. The busiest night at the gay and 25-cent martinis. bars was Saturday when I stumbled If not wearing the proper attire upon a roving bar crawl fundraiser to grab a table, the tour company for New Orleans Pride. will return you to the heart of the The most popular times to visit French Quarter just blocks from the city for LGBT visitors are durJackson Square. The outdoor plaza ing Southern Decadence over Labor in front of the St. Louis Cathedral Day weekend, Halloween, New is surrounded by some of the city’s Year’s, Mardi Gras in late February best restaurants and myriad shops. (Fat Tuesday is March 4 this year), Grab one of the city’s signature and Pride in late June. sandwiches, a po-boy, at Johnny’s For more information about the (511 St. Louis Street). Rub elbows city’s LGBT scene and gay-friendly with tourists and students from accommodations, visit http://www. nearby Tulane University as you gayneworleans.com/.t wait in line in this cramped New

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6983hh CELbayAreaReporter.indd 1

2/18/14 10:54 AM

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

10 ••BBAY AYA AREA REAR REPORTER EPORTER • February February27-March 27-March5, 5,2014 2014

Trans law

From page 1

coalition, which sponsored the referendum, needed 504,760 valid signatures. The coalition ended up with only 487,484 valid signatures, or about 17,000 signatures short. Called the School Success and Opportunity Act, Assembly Bill 1266 ensures that California public schools are committed to the success of all students, including those transgender-identified. Under the law, transgender students have the right to participate in all school activities like sports teams, and use school facilities like bathrooms based on their gender identity. In January, random samples taken from petition signature counts in each county qualified the referendum, albeit barely, for a full signature count. As final numbers rolled in on Monday, AB 1266 supporters nodded their approval and celebrated the continued protection of transgender youth in California schools. AB 1266, which was signed by Governor Jerry Brown last summer, went into effect January 1. Richard Poppen, an Equality California board member and mathematician, watched the signature counting process closely and relayed regular informative updates to colleagues as each county reported their numbers. “The process went through in the standard way,” Poppen told the Bay Area Reporter. “Referendum proponents got the full benefit of the statutory process but failed fair and square to meet the threshold. Trans kids will continue to be protected as the legislature intended.” Supporters of the new law, including Equality California, the Transgender Law Center, and other groups that came together under the Support All Students campaign, were pleased the referendum failed to qualify, and thus there won’t be a divisive anti-LGBT measure on the November ballot. “The good thing that comes out of this misguided referendum effort is that we were able to continue to educate people,” AB

SF Pride

From page 6

“Thousands of people’s lives have been materially and positively affected by the kindness and charity of the people who support the Grand Ducal Council,” according to Pride. “ ... the Grand Ducal Council has raised over $1.6 million to help AIDS, breast cancer, domestic abuse, and homelessness-related causes.” The San Francisco Night Ministry provides middle-of-the-night pastoral care, counseling, referral and crisis intervention to people in distress. Upon request, a night minister will meet anyone anywhere in the city. Calls to the group’s crisis line come from around the Bay Area and beyond. “We are delighted and honored to be a nominee for organizational grand marshal and are grateful to those who nominated us,” Lyle J. Beckman, the ministry’s director, said in an email. “This is our 50th anniversary year and we look forward to sharing the story of our involvement in the LGBTQ communities over the years, and our commitment to continue to provide crisis inter-

Ellis Act

From page 1

the majority of 2013 evictions in the city occurred less than a year after a new landlord purchased a property – many occurred within six months of purchase. Lee also said reform of the law is needed. “These speculators are turning a quick profit at the expense of longtime tenants and do nothing to add needed housing to our city,” the may-

1266 author Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) said in a statement. “Although it’s clear that California is moving in the direction of equality and respect, this does not mean the struggle is over ... The people who belittle the rights of transgender students should know their efforts encourage the bullies. It is their intolerance that allows the violence to continue, and that violence affects every child, not just transgender students.” In response to efforts to repeal AB 1266, the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club held an open meeting last week at the West Berkeley Library to highlight the “T” in LGBT, the least legislatively protected segment of the community. “It’s no coincidence that the ‘T’ is at the very end,” said Stonewall board member and Berkeley City Councilmember Darryl Moore during the February 19 meeting. “When I talk with my lesbian and gay brothers and sisters, a lot of them don’t get the trans piece. There’s a lot of transphobia in the gay and lesbian community.” Attended by club and community members alike, the meeting’s purpose was twofold. First, to hold an informative panel of transgender advocates to shed light on transgender discrimination. Second, to inform the attendees about the referendum opposing AB 1266, and disperse information about how to lobby for AB 1266 model policies to be applied at the local school district level. That work can continue even without a ballot measure, advocates noted. “School boards have a great deal of authority in setting their own policies,” said the club’s secretary, Joe Greaves. “Even if AB 1266 were repealed in November, if school boards have taken the initiative to adopt policies required by AB 1266 now, they would stay in effect.” Transgender Law Center deputy director Kris Hayashi was a panelist and stressed this attack on the transgender community would be the first of many. “Even if on Monday the referendum doesn’t make it to the ballot, this is just the beginning,” Hayashi

said. “We are in a moment where we’re going to see an escalation of right-wing attacks on the trans community. It’s also a moment where LGBT organizations have an opportunity to support the transgender community.” The meeting’s panelists also included Jenna Rapues, a health educator at the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Community Health Equity and Promotion branch, and transgender activist Jae Szeszycki-Truesdell. All three panelists quoted a 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey to highlight the acute nature of antitransgender bias. While the preventative measures against the referendum are now moot, Hayashi indicated that LGB solidarity with the transgender community will need to take many forms in the future. “There may have been different community priorities before,” he said, “but here is a real opportunity for the LGBT movement to show support in ways that look different than they have in the past.” It is not known what AB 1266 opponents will do next now that the referendum has failed to quality for the ballot. A news release that Privacy for All Students sent out just before the secretary of state’s final report indicated opponents knew they might come up short of the required signatures. “After Monday, PFAS will finally get to see the signatures that have been invalidated and will have our turn to challenge those that were thrown out,” the coalition stated. The coalition also indicated it may go to court to challenge the invalidated signatures. Poppen said that would be a “tall order.” “But to win and qualify, they would have to get 17,726 signatures un-un-qualified, about 13.1 percent of the disqualified signatures,” he said in an email. “That is, they’d have to claw back more than one disqualified signature in eight. That’s a very tall order and they’re very unlikely to succeed.”t

vention, counseling, referral services and care every night of the year.” The San Francisco Trans March is the final organizational grand marshal nominee for this year. The march’s mission is to inspire “trans and gender non-conforming people to realize a world where they are safe, loved, and empowered,” Pride’s news release said. The march, which is San Francisco’s largest transgender Pride event, typically takes place on the Friday of Pride weekend. This year’s slate of Pink Brick nominees starts with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. In January, Jonathan signed the SameSex Marriage Prohibition Act, which prohibits gay marriage and involvement in gay societies and organizations, among other things. Penalties can be up to 14 years in prison for gay marriages. Scott Lively is an anti-gay U.S. pastor accused of engineering Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act and saying LGBT people are the “new Nazis.” Russian President Vladimir Putin

has enforced an anti-gay propaganda law and “given a green light to harassment and intimidation,” while saying it doesn’t discriminate against anyone, Pride said. One individual grand marshal will be selected from the community voting and one will be chosen by Pride’s membership. The board also has the authority to select additional individual grand marshals, and other honorees are expected to include celebrity grand marshals. There will be one organizational grand marshal. The Pride board already announced that it’s named Chelsea Manning an honorary grand marshal for this year’s parade. Manning, the transgender Army private convicted of espionage for releasing classified U.S. documents to WikiLeaks, was named a grand marshal last year before the board rescinded the honor. That move sparked protests and months of controversy. Manning is now serving a 35-year sentence at a military prison. This year’s Pride festivities are set for June 28-29. The theme is “Color Our World with Pride.” For more information, visit www.sfpride.org.t

or said. “These are not the landlords the Ellis Act was designed to help.” Leno said in a statement that the original spirit of the Ellis Act “was to allow legitimate landlords a way out of the rental business.” “Our bill gives San Francisco an opportunity to stop the bleeding and save the unique fabric of our city,” he added. The proposed law, which would apply only to San Francisco, will be heard in Senate policy committees this spring.

In addition to a moratorium on Ellis Act evictions, Ammiano’s bill would also hide no-fault evictions from tenant records or credit checks in unlawful detainer cases, and would place Ellis Act unlawful detainer cases on civil court calendars. “Experience shows that you can’t build your way out of an affordable housing crisis,” Ammiano said in a statement. “We have to do what we can to preserve what affordable housing we have. This is one piece of that effort.”t

Pink Brick nominees

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC14-550090 In the matter of the application of: GEYLOR RODOLFO BALMACEDA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner GEYLOR RODOLFO BALMACEDA, is requesting that the name GEYLOR RODOLFO BALMACEDA, be changed to DILLON BALMACEDA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 10th of April 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC14-550089 In the matter of the application of: SHIREEN YVETTE HUSAIN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SHIREEN YVETTE HUSAIN, is requesting that the name SHIREEN YVETTE HUSAIN, be changed to SHIREEN YVETTE WETMORE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 3rd of April 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC14-550086 In the matter of the application of: DINO MARIO RENAUD, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner DINO MARIO RENAUD, is requesting that the name DINO MARIO RENAUD, be changed to NICHOLAS RENAULT. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 8th of April 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035625700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SHWE MANDALAY, 2107 32ND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HTUN MYAT OO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/31/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035590500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACCESS LIFE & WEALTH MANAGEMENT, 9 HAWKINS LANE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EDGAR A. CERON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/16/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/16/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035633200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NICK FIT, 379 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICHOLAS SMITH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/05/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035617100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: APS IMPORTERS, 309 WALLER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CAROL ELLEN BERBERICH. 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 01/2814.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035626500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ABANTE LAW, 201 SPEAR ST. #1100, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CLAUDIA JEANNETTE CASTILLO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/31/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035631200

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035621400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ELEGBEDE BROTHERS; ELE-BROS, 1091 BUSH ST. ROOM 511, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed MASHKOOR ADETUNJI ELEGBEDE & MUAZZAM BABATUNDE ELEGBEDE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/27/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/29/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035629411 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BOOST; BOOSTED; BOOST CAR; BOOSTER; GET BOOST; BOOST INC; BOOST CORP; BOOST ME; BOOST NOW; ZEPHYR; ZEPHYR CAR; ZEPHYR CARS INC; 1366 TURK ST. #3C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ZEPHYR WAY INC. (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/03/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035599400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MISSION TIRES, 3160 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAN FRANCISCO CAR CARE, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/02/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/21/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035603000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MOVING SERVICES, 1567 25TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CAL BAY 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 01/23/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-034138300 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: ZADIN, 4039 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by TWO COUSINS LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/17/12.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035635400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TOP LINE APPAREL, 5009 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SARA FRANCISCA BONILLA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/31/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/05/14.

FEB 13, 20, 27, MAR 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035647300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FARM TO VINE TOURS, 3055 CALIFORNIA ST #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JANETTE DECAIRE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/05/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/10/14.

FEB 13, 20, 27, MAR 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035633300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GT APPREAL, 1563 MISSION ST 2ND FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GWENDOLINE TAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/02/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/14.

FEB 13, 20, 27, MAR 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035616500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IGLESIA CHRISTIANA NO TEMAS QUE YO ESTOY CONTIGO, 3476 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed IGLESIA CHRISTIANA NO TEMAS QUE YO ESTOY CONTIGO (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 01/28/14.

FEB 13, 20, 27, MAR 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035603100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HENG FENG TRADING USA, 652 BELLEVUE AVE, DALY CITY, CA 94014. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZHI QIANG HUO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/14.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLDEN GATE PARK GOLF DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION, 970 47TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GOLDEN GATE PARK GOLF DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/23/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/23/14.

FEB 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014

FEB 13, 20, 27, MAR 06, 2014

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Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035634300

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035656400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SORELLA SWEETS, 2002 BUCHANAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SORELLA SWEETS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/17/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/14.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BENEDICT ARNOLDS, 930 UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FOOD REVOLUTION LLC, (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/13/14.

FEB 13, 20, 27, MAR 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035626100

FEB 20, 27, MAR 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035601100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FIDELITY MORTGAGE, 100 CALIFORNIA ST #1100, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BAY EQUITY LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/01/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/14.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ANNA’S COTTAGE COLLECTIONS, 245 WEST PORTAL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed ANNEMARIE HIGGINS & KENNETH L. HIGGINS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/22/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/22/14.

FEB 13, 20, 27, MAR 06, 2014 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-034284703

FEB 20, 27, MAR 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035636600

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: BANKERS PREFERRED, 100 CALIFORNIA ST #1100, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business was conducted by a limited liability company, and signed by BAY EQUITY LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/10/12.

FEB 13, 20, 27, MAR 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035648300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TOP MARK TOURS, 435 BROADWAY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARK GITTUS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/11/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/11/14.

FEB 20, 27, MAR 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035595200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: S&J SUPPLY, 572 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed SAMUEL GENTHNER & JAMES FERNANDEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/17/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/17/14.

FEB 20, 27, MAR 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035661000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: II-CHA, 1222 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed IST, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/14/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/14/14.

FEB 20, 27, MAR 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035664400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PIZZERIA DE BRUNO, 1330 9TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BM HOLDINGS, 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 02/18/14.

FEB 20, 27, MAR 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035652800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KROYER CYCLES LLC, 3210 B 22ND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KROYER CYCLES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/12/14.

FEB 20, 27, MAR 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035654000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: I/O LEGAL GROUP, 2261 MARKET ST #140, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MOIRA LUZ DAWSON. 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 02/05/14.

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FEB 27, MAR 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035675300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FRESH AND FOOLISH, 66 CLEARY CT #509, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed RAHUL NIHALANI & JONATHAN ELLENBOGEN. 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 02/21/14.

FEB 27, MAR 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035664900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SILVANA SAN FRANCISCO, 2559 38TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed JOSEPH SONG RIN PARK & CHARLES MCHAEL SCHWENKE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/05/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/05/14.

FEB 27, MAR 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035678800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: STEPPINGSTONE, 930 FOURTH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94158. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed NORTH AND SOUTH OF MARKET ADULT DAY HEALTH CORPORATION (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 02/24/14.

FEB 27, MAR 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035672600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CABLE CAR WINE & SPIRIT GROCERY, 841 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CABLE CAR WINE AND SPIRITS, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/21/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/21/14.

FEB 27, MAR 06, 13, 20, 2014 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-033558100

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GUYS FLOWERS, 2198 15TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GUY CLARK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/11/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/11/14.

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: CABLE CAR WINE & SPIRIT GROCERY, 841 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by KENNY TSANG. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/12/11.

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FEB 27, MAR 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035648900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE CASTANET GROUP, LLC, 475 CONNECTICUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed THE CASTANET GROUP, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/27/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/12/14.

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Notices>> JOHN SINGLETERRY –

In search of John Singleterry who lived in SF in the 1980s. Please call William Hausler, former owner of The Saint Elizabeth. 775-247-1504

/lgbtsf

LOCAL & IMPRESSIVE TOP 10 PRODUCERS

(Left-Right) Donald Woolhouse, Tanya Dzhibrailova (Company Top Producer), Richard Meyerson,

Laura Kaufman, Sherri Howe, Robin Hubinsky (West Portal Top Producer), Todd Wiley, Bonnie Spindler (Upper Market Top Producer), Deborah Nguyen (Noe Valley Top Producer), Tim Gullicksen (Pacific Heights Top Producer)

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2013 TOP PRODUCERS

Bill Kitchen

Tanja Beck

Amy Clemens

Michael Vicki Tim Ackerman Valandra Hawco

Chris Sprague

David Baskin

Richard Sarro

Lynne L. Priest

Steve Dells

Andrew Roth

Michael Salstein

John LePage

Peter Goss

Hugh Michelle James R. Groocock Kim Holloway

Harry Clark

John Zhou

David Antman

Eric Jeff Castongia Hand

Lily Christine Danita Remoundos Doud Kulp

Kevin Dan Markarian Bunker

ZephyrSF.com

Faye Dibachi

Ken Eggers

Darryl Honda

Isabelle Grotte

Dave Erik Cunningham Reider

Gillian Pontes

Daniel Nadia Fernandez Ruimy

Jan Medina

Britton E. Damon Jackson Knox

Claire Chessen

Jane Rita Mermelstein Roti

Tyron Hooper

Wes Freas

Nancy Meyer

Ravi Malhotra

Matthew Goulden

Darkened Shores

Georgia works

Out &About

Ballet kicks

O&A

The

Vol. 44 • No. 9 • February 27-March 5, 2014

www.ebar.com/arts

Off to see the Wizard! by Adam Sandel

Ang Lee won Best Director for last year’s Life of Pi and for 2005’s Brokeback Mountain.

Oscar statuettes get frisky at a previous Academy of Friends Academy Awards Night Gala.

Not always married: Best Picture & Best Director by Tavo Amador

ovie buffs have more than the usual reasons to attend the Academy of Friends’ Oscar Night Gala on Sunday, March 2. In honor of the 75th anniversary of the beloved film classic The Wizard of Oz, the theme of this year’s gala is Return to the Emerald City. In its 34-year history, the organization has raised over $8.6 million to support more than 73 Bay Area HIV/AIDS service organizations, and their annual gala has long been known as San Francisco’s most glamorous Oscar night event. See page 23 >>

any people were surprised when Argo won last year’s Best Picture Oscar, because Ben Affleck had not even been nominated for his direction. His situation, though increasingly rare, is not unique in Academy Awards history. William Wellman, director of Wings (1927), the first film to win the Best Picture Oscar, was not nominated either. Because movies are considered a director’s medium (a compelling case could be made that editors are equally important), conventional wisdom suggests that the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars should go in tandem. As the following examples show, that has not always been the case. Ang Lee has two Best Director Academy Awards, for last year’s Life of Pi and for 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, but neither won for Best Picture. (Does anybody remember Crash?) George Stevens was also the Academy’s choice for Best Director twice – A Place in the Sun (1951) and Giant (1956) – yet neither film won the big prize. Alfred Hitchcock, on the other hand, never collected an Oscar, but guided one Best Picture winner, Rebecca (1940). The same is true of Edmund Goulding, whose Grand Hotel (1932) picked up the Best Picture prize – amazingly, the only category for which it was nominated.

The first Academy Awards were handed out for movies released in 1927-28. It was not until the 1932-33 prizes were given, however, that the Best Director winner also helmed the Best Picture: Frank Lloyd for the today barely watchable Cavalcade. It happened again for the next two years – Frank Capra and It Happened One Night, John Ford and The Informer – but the prizes were split for 1936 and 37. Capra would have another double triumph with You Can’t Take It with You (1938), and Victor Fleming would be twice honored for Gone With the Wind. Hitchcock lost the directing award the next year to John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath. Ford would collect two little men for 1941’s How Green Was My Valley (the Academy did nominate Citizen Kane and Orson Welles, but lacked the courage to give him the top honors). The awards were linked again until 1948, when Hamlet was cited for Best Picture, and its director, Laurence Olivier, won for Best Actor, but John Huston was chosen as Best Director for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The separation continued in 1949: All the King’s Men was the top picture, but Joseph L. Mankiewicz was the Best Director for A Letter to Three Wives. He would win See page 14 >>

Steven Underhill

{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS }

LGBTQ NIGHT

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<< Out There

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 27-March 5, 2014

Egads, it’s an EGOT in the house! by Roberto Friedman

MG, we were floored when EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner Rita Moreno rocked the house in her acceptance of the Lifetime Achievement Honor at the recent SAG Awards. She dropped the f-bomb and was sassy, brassy and classy. So we’re thrilled to hear that producer Marc Huestis is bringing the lovely Rita to the Castro Theatre on Sat., March 15, for a oneday event called Putting on the Ritz. Of course, The Ritz is the 1976 film of gay playwright Terrence McNally’s hit Broadway play, and it’s the film for which Moreno snagged the T in EGOT – that is, her Tony Award. Who could forget Rita as the tacky, wacky queen-ofthe-steam Googie Gomez belting out, “Ebeything’s coming up rhoziz, por me and por ju.” And just for “ju,” Huestis promises a full-on 1970s bathhouse scene at the glitzy 8 p.m. tribute event, replete with ushers in towels, a ritzy performance by tap-happy Matthew Martin, classic career clips from Moreno’s fivedecade career, and a high-wire onstage interview with Rita, climaxed by a rare theatrical screening of The Ritz. All hosted by svitzy D’Arcy Drollinger as bathhouse Bette. Phew! Poppers, anyone? Seriously folks, at 82, Rita is one helluva survivor, so it’s fitting that partial proceeds benefit Let’s Kick ASS (AIDS Survivor Syndrome), a grassroots movement of longterm survivors. Plus, Huestis tells us, at 1 p.m. there will be a screening of the Sing-Along West Side Story, which earned Moreno the O in EGOT (her Oscar), and it will be hosted by our own local winner Marga Gomez and introduced by Rita, WSS’ “Anita” herself. Tix are going fast, but call (415) 863-0611,

ask for Nardo, and get an especial discount!

Street sheets

Last week we were happily immersed in gay author Lars Eighner’s classic memoir of homelessness Travels with Lizbeth – Three Years on the Road and on the Street, reissued in a new paperback edition from St. Martin’s Griffin following its 20th anniversary last year. Eighner and his dog Lizbeth ping-pong between Austin and L.A., hitchhiking and sleeping in homemade encampments. It’s an in-depth and personal look at what it’s like to be gay and homeless, and although it takes place in the 1980s-90s, it feels even timelier today, in the aftermath of the financial collapse. Part of the book’s real power comes from its “there but for the grace of God go I” factor. Like many Americans not tipping the top of the capitalist pyramid, Out There is really just a few paychecks away from not being able to pay our rent – from “homelessness.” This last term we have always felt to be a misnomer, as even were we totally impoverished (rather than merely the working poor), we’d still have a home – it’s called San Francisco. We just don’t have a society that cares much for poor people. With his lucid writing and patient analysis, Eighner is the ideal guide for bourgeois readers to what poverty in America actually feels like. “To be poor is to be subject utterly to the agents of the law. This as much as anything, I think, is what a middleclass person fails to appreciate about being poor. A middle-class man may want to avoid being stopped for speeding in his BMW, but if he is stopped he sees a face of the law very different from the face shown to the poor. Middle-class people have rights, and they like to think that everyone does. The rich, of course,

/lgbtsf

Rita Moreno as Googie Gomez in a scene from the film The Ritz, coming soon to the Castro Theatre.

know that rights are bought and sold, and the poor know it, too. Those between them live in an illusion.” Eighner finds tenderness with other vagrants when it presents itself, which is not often. “Having offered Mike the protection of my bedroll for the night, I felt it would be ignoble to make a pass at him. Yet high resolve had little chance against my proximity to his young virility and his proximity to my warmth. As a tacit compromise, first I, then he, masturbated barracks-style – that is, each as the other pretended to be asleep.” A chapter on Dumpster diving, written in the style of Jonathan Swift, is a classic essay and has been widely anthologized. In a new afterword, Eighner writes he “intended it to be something of a protest of an economic system that produces waste and excess on the one hand, and want and privation on the other.” Yet it also contains genuinely good advice on finding discarded yet still unspoiled food in the trash heap. For future use. Ultimately, what kept us reading was the author’s voice: assured, droll and specific. What do we mean by voice but the guiding consciousness behind a literary project, along with the author’s skills with language. Eighner has that gift in spades, and his memoir deserves never to go out of print. We’d dive into a Dumpster for it.t

Best Picture/Director

From page 13

again in 1950, and so did his movie, All About Eve. But the next year, Stevens’ A Place in the Sun lost to An American in Paris. The two gilded men were married again until 1956, when Around the World in 80 Days collected the top honor, while Stevens went home with his second Oscar. The awards were in synch for the rest of the decade, and Vincente Minnelli, who had helmed An American in Paris, would finally get recognition for himself and his picture, as Gigi (1958) took both awards. The prizes were in lockstep until 1967, when In the Heat of the Night was the Best Picture, but Mike Nichols was Best Director for The Graduate. (He and his debut film, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, had been nominated for both prizes the year before, but lost to the conventional A Man for All Seasons, helmed by Fred Zinnemann.) The next division did not occur until 1972, when Bob Fosse grabbed the award for Cabaret but The Godfather was the top film. Then a remarkable run of tandem Oscars did not end until 1981, when Chariots of Fire was the Best Picture, but Warren Beatty Best Director for Reds.

The awards would go hand-inhand again until 1989, until Oliver Stone won for Born on the Fourth of July, a film that lost the top prize to Driving Miss Daisy. The awards remained joined at the hip once more until 1998. That year, Shakespeare in Love was the Best Picture, but Steven Spielberg collected his second Best Director Oscar, for Saving Private Ryan. Sam Mendes reunited the prizes with American Beauty (1999), but another divorce occurred the following year, with Gladiator winning Best Movie, while Steven Soderbergh earned the Director nod for Traffic. Ron Howard reconciled the awards in 2001 with A Beautiful Mind, but another split came the following year, with Roman Polanski collecting the prize for The Pianist, but Chicago capturing the highest honor. Since then, the only exceptions were those for Ang Lee. But with 10 movies nominated in the Best Picture category vs. only five nominees for Best Director, the odds of a split have increased.t

On the web This week, find Victoria A. Brownworth’s Lavender Tube column, “Life after the Olympics,” online at www.ebar.com.

Dance>>

February 27-March 5, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

Glowing in beautiful light by Paul Parish

Erik Tomasson

San Francisco Ballet dancers Lorena Feijoo and Vitor Luiz in Val Caniparoli’s Tears.

and Keyboards. If the piece had not started in deep gloom to the sound of rain, I’d never have guessed it had anything to do with water in it. The dancers have to fight the music, a barrage of bright points of sound with no rhythm. Counterculture dance-makers in the 60s used music like that for hypnotic whirling-dervish ballets, but Caniparoli’s piece seems to have human urgencies (clasping at the throat, upthrust arms, intricate partnering) that ask to be taken emotionally, though the gestures are applied almost at random and tell no story. Vitor Luiz was Feijoo’s reliable partner, and Ellen Rose Hummel was Deivison’s. The four men, who sometimes rolled onto the stage under a railing stage right and did the most interesting things, were Gaetano Amico, Benjamin Stewart, Sean Orza, and Thatcher. Most of these also appeared in

Erik Tomasson

San Francisco Ballet dancers Sarah Van Patten and Pascal Molat in Wayne McGregor’s Borderlands.

the finale, Borderlands, an abstract piece with even more extreme distortions and dissociations of ballet logic by the Englishman Wayne McGregor, whose version of hyperballet involves infusing drastic pelvic, rib, and shoulder convulsions with the technique of classical ballet. All set to rhythmless, pounding piano-chords and caustic strobe-lights. Tiit Helimets had a solo in which he suddenly made all his moves precious. I took it as an act of defiance, and loved it. Henry Sidford, Luke Willis, Jaime Garcia Castilla, and Jennifer Stahl all had outstanding moments in which they made this material their own. The middle ballet, Ratmansky’s From Foreign Lands, is a superb piece of light entertainment made in the style of character ballet. It’s a suite of dances of the Eastern-European suppressed peoples in the Italian, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian styles,

the rite of spring

folks who’d had their countries overrun by the Russian, Austrian, and Prussian empires. So these idioms all have politics to them, and the “cheerful local-color” aspect of them may be understood to be brightly phony. We have only to look at the rioting in Kiev to remember that suppressed peoples are not as cheerfully submissive as the commissars in Moscow like to pretend. It’s not irrelevant that Kiev is where Ratmansky had his big career as a dancer; his talent was maybe too ironic for Moscow in the 1980s. Ratmansky’s work has potential for caustic edge. Though he does not bring out that edge in From Foreign Lands, there is a lot of subversiveness in the wit that plays throughout. The orchestra did not play it well, the dancers fudged too many steps, and our audience is not quite familiar with Ratmansky’s idiom. In any case, the piece puzzled the audience, though they gave

part of program 6 triple bill (© CARSON L ANCASTER)

fter presenting the Hamburg Ballet as guest artists, San Francisco Ballet continued their season with a pair of mixed bills that opened last week and continues its run through March 2 this coming weekend. The company is dancing very well indeed; your reviewer caught Program 2 last Friday night at the Opera House, where all three ballets glowed in beautiful light, handsomely staged and costumed, and well-accompanied by the ballet’s own orchestra. The ballets were Tears (Val Caniparoli), From Foreign Lands (Alexei Ratmansky), and Borderlands (Wayne McGregor). The program was hit-and-miss. None of the ballets quite came together, although individual dancers provided staggering moments all across the evening: Miles Thatcher’s visionary jumps in Tears, Daniel Deivison-Oleivera’s Rock of Gibraltar stance in the same piece, Dores Andre’s astounding splits on pointe in Borderlands. If her legs had been hands on a clock, they’d have pointed to 10 past six! Applause was tepid but respectful for Caniparoli’s world premiere. It’s a noble failure. The audience knows and loves him and talks of him as “Val,” since he’s been dancing and choreographing here for decades and still dances Drosselmeyer, Juliet’s father, the Prince’s tutor in Swan Lake, and Cinderella. He’s made a number of popular ballets, noticeably Lambarena, which is now danced by companies all over the world. This is his most experimental work yet, an abstraction about the interconnectedness of everybody and everything, apparently inspired by water, with ambitions to be a ballerina vehicle for our Cuban star Lorena Feijoo, set to Steve Reich’s chirpy Variations for Winds

it healthy applause. The dancers I thought “got it” best on Friday were Hansuke Yamamoto, Luke Willis, Steven Morse, Simone Messmer, and the adorable Mathilde Froustey. Ratmansky, born in Leningrad, trained at the Bolshoi, but had his career as a dancer in Kiev and Denmark before being welcomed back to the post-Communist, liberated Bolshoi as artistic director in the 1990s, where he made outrageous reconstructions of Soviet-era ballets, gave aid and comfort to the rebellious Georgian Ballet, commissioned new work and promoted brilliant young dancers like Osipova and Vasiliev before getting threatened enough to leave. He is perhaps the finest choreographer alive working within classical tradition, but he’s doing it in the demi-caractere idiom, not the Soviet heroic idiom. So he’s a little hard for us to take in. Ratmansky’s Shostakovich trilogy, set to profound, harrowing symphonies by the composer Stalin persecuted his whole life, is upcoming on Program 5. It’s been seen in New York and noted with wonder and awe. It also seems to use a lot of folk-idiom. We’ll have to see how our dancers interpret it. Meantime, go see Yuri Possokhov’s fabulous restaging of the Diaghilevera Firebird (Stravinsky’s score) on SFB’s Program 3, which alternates with #2 continuing through Sunday, and see how an expat Russian makes a version of this old Russian folktale that saves everything wonderful about it, and makes fantastic use of the same folk-dance materials that Ratmansky uses, to turn it into something any American kid could relate to. If our dancers don’t quite get Ratmansky’s idiom, they do understand Possokhov’s, since he’s lived and worked here with them for two decades, and they’re going to tear it up.t

APR 4-15

nite out:

SF Ballet’s exclusive cultural event for the LGBT community

FRI, APR 4

Experience Yuri Possokhov’s thrilling staging of The Rite of Spring, set to Stravinsky’s groundbreaking masterwork. Plus, the world premiere of Helgi Tomasson’s Symphonic Caprice, and the 20th anniversary presentation of Mark Morris’ Maelstrom.

Our Nite Out season continues—come and see what all the buzz is about! After a thrilling triple-bill performance, join Nite Out hosts Principal Dancer Damian Smith and Corps de Ballet Dancer Shannon Marie Rugani and other SF Ballet dancers for a post-show party. Get to know our dancers, enjoy complimentary cocktails, light bites, and a live DJ.

TICKETS: sfballet.org/NiteOut

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET IN POSSOKHOV’S THE RITE OF SPRING (© ERIK TOMASSON)

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<< Theatre

16 • Bay Area Reporter • February 27-March 5, 2014

Neapolitan calamities

by Richard Dodds

Kevin Berne

Marco Barricelli plays a soldier returned from war to a far different home run by his unscrupulous wife (Seana McKenna) in Napoli! at ACT.

ombs start dropping, people take cover, and then with the sound of the all-clear siren, the scramble is again on to score a cup of coffee from unofficial barista Amalia Jovine. With World War II tearing up Europe at full fury, the citizens of one Neapolitan neighborhood seek out one semblance of normalcy, their morning coffee, though their buzz must now be fueled through a black-market operation in Amalia’s bustling, rundown apartment, designed by Erik Flatmo. In Eduardo De Filippo’s mildmannered social comedy Napoli!, now at ACT, we see the everyday pettiness that a calamity can create. Amalia Jovine is a kind of bushleague Mother Courage, more concerned with amassing baubles than simply surviving, as the war creates victors and victims among those who are supposedly on the same

side. De Filippo first staged Napoli Milionaria in Naples in 1945, after the arrival of the Allied Forces, and the playwright’s wartime depiction of human frailty, rather than atrocities, might have been seen as a gentle slice-of-life rejoinder, with characters and behavior that audiences could comfortably recognize. Linda Alper and Beatrice Basso’s translation has shortened the title and added an exclamation point suggesting that Napoli! is a jauntier exercise than it is. There is an undercurrent of low-level laughter that only occasionally bursts into anything bigger. There are everyday family calamities either left unresolved or conveniently solved. There is the sad laughter of a veteran returning to a home that has moved past interest in war stories. Nor is the most potent aspect of the story played for the moralizing melodrama it could foster, but as a simple example that kindness doesn’t necessarily need payback.

Director Mark Rucker’s production ambles along at an agreeable tempo, with several members of the large cast rising above the crowd. Marco Barricelli cannot help but be an ample force on stage, even here as he plays the underpowered patriarch. Seana McKenna, as his wife Amalia, runs the show, as well as several underground businesses, and there is a reserved steeliness in her performance. Anthony Fusco has several touching moments as one of the victims of Amalia’s usury tactics, and Gregory Wallace offers a sauntering charm as an inspector without much interest in curtailing crime. De Filippo has a huge resume as playwright, filmmaker, and actor, and his popularity occasionally flickers on this side of the Atlantic. But ACT’s production of Napoli! doesn’t turn that flicker into a flame.t Napoli! will run at ACT through March 9. Tickets are $20-$120. Call 749-2228 or go to www.act-sf.org.

Del Shores goes darker by Richard Dodds

t’s been a sordid career for Del Shores, whose play, movie, and television series Sordid Lives attached that disreputable description to his work – a franchise he furthered by touring in three oneman shows that all worked Sordid into their titles. He has plans for two more Sordid Lives movies before calling it a day for that title nearly eight years after an unheralded stage play grew into a phenomenon that pushes at the limits of the adjective “cult.” While Shores’ more recent plays have eschewed Sordid, their titles

still suggest a campy Southern sensibility. But Shores said, despite the titles, The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife and Southern Baptist Sissies have been treading darker waters, a path he continues in his new play Yellow. New Conservatory Theatre Center is returning to Shores territory, with Yellow coming nearly 10 years after the theater presented Southern Baptist Sissies. “When the Los Angeles Times reviewed Yellow, it basically said that Del Shores takes a huge departure from what we’re used to, and this critic wonders if his fans will take the journey with him. One of my

favorite moments in L.A. was when we had an older matinee audience, the lights went down on the first act, and this woman very loudly said, ‘Well, I didn’t see that coming.’ I thought, good, I did my job.” Through most of its first act, Yellow plays out as a family comedy with suggestions of a bumpier ride ahead. Bobby and Kate, the parents of two teenagers, are still giddily in love, while their son Dayne is a likable star athlete and their daughter Gracie is a precocious drama-club brat. An unofficial fifth member of the family is another drama geek, best friends with the daughter while harboring a huge crush on her broth-

Del Shores, creator of Sordid Lives, moves into darker territory with Yellow, now at New Conservatory Theatre Center.

er. Kendall spends a lot of time in the second home, escaping the wrath of his frighteningly religious mother, who thinks Kendall is damned to hell for a taking a role in the school production of Oklahoma! The story involves a huge twist, and for the most part critics have respected the limits of responsible revelation. “I just say an illness creates a situation where a 19-year-old secret is revealed,” Shores said, with some of the information coming early enough in the play that it can be said that it is the high school athlete who is ailing, a situation providing the gay-but-virginal Kendall a chance to happily play nursemaid to his hero. At one point, Kendall even acts out a condensed version of Kiss of the Spider Woman for his bedridden friend, complete with “the kiss.” Before starting writing Yellow, several experiences kept resurfacing in Shores’ mind, and he began playing a “what if ” game with the events. “I knew a couple like Bobby and Kate, and I was privy to a secret in their relationship. I have another friend who had the disease that I

gave to Dayne, and I played what-if there had to be a match with a rare blood type. And the third component was when I found out one of my best friends had killed himself. He had been damaged by religion, and he hung himself after a night of drinking and after his mother told him he had never been anything but a disappointment to her. I said at his memorial that I would create a play with a character named Kendall, and let him have a refuge family like Kendall does in this play.” In his own family growing up in Texas, Shores had both refuge and brimstone in his home. His father was a Southern Baptist pastor who preached sin and damnation from the pulpit and in the home, while his mother was a drama teacher who was opening up to him the magic world of theater. But the father’s message triumphed, and Shores did not come out until his 30s, after a marriage that produced two daughters. A second marriage, to Jason Dottley, ended in divorce a few years ago. Shores found his detour into oneman shows and standup comedy as a kind of healing for a series of personal travails. The single season of Sordid Lives on the Logo cable network ended in acrimony. “I was basically under contract to a person I was suing,” he said, “and then your husband leaves you, so there was something very wonderful about standing on stage hearing laughter and applause. It was all very therapeutic, and fortunately it was therapy that was actually earning me money.”t Yellow will run at New Conservatory Theatre Center through March 23. Tickets are $25-$45. Call 861-8972 or go to www.nctcsf.org.

Fascinated with the astonishing natural beauty of Lake George in upstate New York, Georgia O’Keeffe reveled in the discovery of new subject matter that energized her signature modernist style. From magnified botanical compositions to panoramic landscapes, the works in this exhibition offer a deeper understanding of the spirit of place that was essential to O’Keeffe’s artistic evolution.

This exhibition is organized by The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York, in association with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico. The exhibition is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. The foundation sponsor is the Henry Luce Foundation. The presentation at the de Young is made possible by the Ednah Root Foundation, the San Francisco Auxiliary of the Fine Arts Museums, the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund, and Lucinda Watson.

F E B R UA RY 1 5 — M AY 1 1 , 2 0 1 4 H E R B ST E X H I B I T I O N G A L L E R I E S

Media Sponsors Georgia O’Keeffe, Petunias, 1925. Oil on board. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, museum purchase, gift of the M. H. de Young Family. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Golden Gate Park • deyoungmuseum.org

Lois Tema

Two families tied up in a web of secrets work their ways though their issues in Del Shores’ tragedy-laced comedy Yellow at NCTC.

ONE-NIGHT- ONLY ENGAGEMENT!

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FRI Mar 28 8PM For just one night, the one and only Liza Minnelli ups the glam factor at Davies Symphony Hall. The Broadway legend and star of the silver screen will perform with her septet, singing classic American standards including New York, New York and Cabaret. Winner of four Tony Awards, an Oscar, a Grammy, two Golden Globe Awards, an Emmy, and the 2005 GLAAD Vanguard award-recipient, “Liza with a Z” is a pop culture icon and star of the brightest magnitude. The San Francisco Symphony does not appear on this concert. Group discount not available.

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<< Out&About

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 27-March 5, 2014

O&A Out &About

The Scion @ The Marsh Solo performer Brian Copeland’s new show focuses on privilege, murder and sausage in his retelling of the triple murder crime at the Santos Linguisa Factory. $15-$60. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 5pm. Extended thru April 18. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Fri 28 Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Mon 3 Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight’s Vicki Marlane

Upending gender by Jim Provenzano

hat’s your gender status? Can you choose from the 50 gendervariant terms now offered by Facebook? What about the real world? A sensitive subject, particularly coming from a cisgender former Queer National caucazoid cyclizen who nowadays just prefers the antiquated homo. Pansy’ll do, too, thank you. Check out documentaries, fantasy family films and hit plays soon to close, each which may expand your gender definition in fighting the patriarchal hegonomy of binary banality.

Thu 27 42nd Street Moon Gala @ Bimbo’s Broadway and TV star Megan Hilty headlines a gala fundraiser for the local musical theatre company; enjoy cocktails, dinner, a brief live auction, a Moonglow Cabaret featuring vocalist Klea Blackhurst and performers with the company. Cocktail attire with a dash of red, please. $375$7,500. 6pm-11pm. 1025 Columbus Ave. 255-8207. www.42ndstmoon.org

Arthur Szyk; Art of the Haggadah @ Contemporary Jewish Museum New exhibit of 48 fascinating and richly detailed illustrations of Hebrew stories by the early 20th-century artist (thru June 29). Also; Jason Lazarus: Live Archive, an exhibit of unusual work by the Chicago artist who explores collective public archives, personal memory, and the role of photography and collecting in contemporary art and identity (thru March 23). Also, To Build & Be Built: Kibbutz History (thru July 1). 2pm-5pm. Free (members)-$12. Thu-Tue 11am-5pm (Thu 1pm-8pm) 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Bread and Circuses @ La Val’s Subterranean, Berkeley Impact Theatre’s spicy mix of new and action-packed (i.e. violent) short plays by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Prince Gomolvilas, Declan Greene, Lauren Gunderson, Dave Holstein, J.C. Lee, Ross Maxwell, Lauren Yee, and Steve Yockey. $10-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru April 6. 1834 Euclid Ave., Berkeley. www.impacttheatre.com

Healthier Living @ LGBT Center Openhouse presents weekly workshops for LGBT adults ages 55+ that share information and motivation. Thru March 13. 10am-12:30pm. Community Room 306, 1800 Market St. www.openhouse-sf.org

Hir @ Magic Theatre World premiere of Obie Award winner Taylor Mac’s play about Paige, a mother determined to forge a liberated life for her two kids; Isaac, a discharged soldier, and Max, a third-sex youth. $20-$60. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Extended thru March 2. Fort Mason Center, Building D, 3rd floor. 441-8822. www.magictheatre.org

Napoli! @ Geary Theatre American Conservatory Theatre presents Beatrice Basso and Linda Alper’s new translation of Eduardo De Filippo’s Italian dramedy about a family’s black market business during the tumult of World War II in Italy. $20-$120. Wed-Sun various times. Thru March 9. 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

New and Classic Films @ Castro Theatre Feb 27, Star 80 and Mulholland Drive. Mar 2, a Disney’s Frozen Sing-Along. Mar. 3, The Wolf of Wall Street. Mar. 5, Philip Seymore Hoffman in Capote and The Master. Mar. 6 & 7, American Hustle. $11. 429 Castro St. 621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com

HIR

Black Choreographers Festival @ Laney College Theater, Oakland

Jennifer Reiley

Showcase of dances by Joanna Haigood, Gregory Dawson, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Portsha Jefferson and Kendra Kimbrough Barnes. $10-$25. Fri & Sat 8pm. 900 Fallon St., Oakland. www.bcfhereandnow.com

Can You Dig It? @ The Marsh Berkeley Don Reed’s autobiographical solo show explores the 1960s: Beatles, Black Panthers, MLK, JFK and the KKK. $20-$50. Sat 8:30pm and Sun 7pm thru March 1. 2120 Allston Way. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Escabana in da Moonlight @ Live Oak Theatre, Oakland Theatre First’s production of Jeff Daniels’ comedy about the kooky residents of a deer farm. $15-$30. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun. 5pm. Thru March 8. 1301 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 981-8150. www.theatrefirst.com

Gideon’s Knot @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Johnna Adams’ award-winning twoperson drama between a teacher and a problem student’s mother explores issues of personal responsibility, freedom of expression, bullying and blame. $32-$50. Tue 7pm, Wed-Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm & 7pm. Extended thru March 9. 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

Jerusalem @ SF Playhouse Pan-orama @ The Costume Shop Jef Valentine (who wowed local audiences in Ray of Light’s Rocky Horror Show ) presents his Peter Pan tribute solo show, A Salute to the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. $10. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Extended thru Feb 28. 1117 Market St. www.pan-o-rama.eventbrite.com

Paula West @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The renowned Bay Area jazz vocalist performs an all-new show with her fourpiece band in a special four-week residency at the elegant nightclub. $35-$50; $20 food/beverage min. Thu 8pm, Fri 7pm & 9:30pm, Sat & Sun 7pm. Thru March 9. Hotel Nikko lobby, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.feinsteinssf.com

San Francisco Symphony @ Davies Symphony Hall The symphony performs Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 in D minor, with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting, and mezzosoprano Sasha Cooke. Feb 27 open rehearsal 10am. Concert 8pm. Also March 1, 8pm. March 2, 2pm. MTT also conducts the symphony Feb 28, 8pm with guest cellist Yo-Yo Ma in works by Ives/Brant, Schumann and Beethoven. $15-$180. 201 Van Ness Ave. 864-6000. www.sfsymphony.org

Local production of Jez Butterworth’s Tony and Olivier-winning witty British drama, where the values of losing ancient Celtic ruins vs. building council flats compare to the loss of family cohesion. $20-$100. Tue & Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm, Sun 2pm. Thru March 8. 450 Powell St., 2nd. floor. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Josh Klipp and The Klipptones @ Palace Hotel The local jazz crooner and his band perform weekly shows at the hotel’s lounge, which draws a growing swingdance audience. 7pm-11pm. 2 New Montgomery. www.joshklipp.com

Julia Jackson @ Stage Werx Theatre Children are Forever (All Sales are Final!), the solo performer’s comic show about motherhood. $15. Fri & Sat 8pm. Thru Mar. 22. 446 Valencia St. www.stagewerx.org

Little Shop of Horrors @ Lohman Theatre, Los Altos Hills Foothill Music Theatre’s production of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s hit Off-Broadway musical based on the Roger Corman film about an alien carnivorous plant that also talks and sings. $13-$28. Thu 7:30, Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru March 9. Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills. (650) 949-7360. www.foothill.edu/theatre/shop

Magnificent Magnolias @ SF Botanical Gardens

New Experimental Plays Festival @ Exit on Taylor

See blooming magnolia trees and exhibits. Also, daily walking tours and more. Thru March 31. Also, hundreds of species of native wildflowers in a century-old grove of towering Coast Redwoods. Free-$15. Daily. Golden Gate Park. 6612-1316. www.SFBotanicalGarden.org

Cutting Ball Theater’s 15th annual new experimental theatre series includes staged readings and productions of five new plays. $20-$50 (5-play pass). Fri & Sat thru March 29. 277 Taylor St. 525-1205. www.cuttingball.com

The Manhattan Transfer @ Yoshi’s Oakland The ten-time Grammy-winning jazz vocal group performs at the East Bay nightclub and restaurant. $35-$48. 8pm & 10pm. Also Mar. 1 at 7:30pm and 9:30pm. Mar. 2 at 7pm & 9pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Jack London Square. (510) 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

A Maze @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley

Lesbian Fiction Authors @ SF Public Library Bold Strokes Books presents authors Annameekee Hesik, Carsen Taite, Clifford Henderson, Kathleen Knowles, Heather Blackmore, and Ashley Bartlett, who read from and discuss their work, and sign copies. Free, 5pm-8pm. 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

Thu 27

Sat 1

Prinsesa at the Scary Cow Film Festival

Shotgun Players present Just Theater’s production of Rob Handel’s play about three intertwined stories: a teenage girl recovering from a years-long kidnapping, a post-rehab rock band, and an artist dealing with his cult following. $25-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru March 9. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 214-3780. www.justheater.org

Public Intimacy @ YBCA SF MOMA on the Go exhibit Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa, a collection of photography, with artists Kemang Wa Lehulere, AthiPatra Ruga, Sello Pesa, and Vaughn Sadie, among others. Thru June 29. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 3211307. www.sfmoma.org www.ybca.org

Queer Open Mic @ Modern Times Bookstore The monthly festive LGBTQ reading and performance series, cohosted by Baruch Porras-Hernandez and Blythe Baldwin, this month includes Lucky7 and musician Jade Way. Free. 7:30pm. 2919 24th St. www.queeropenmic.com

Out&About>>

Sunday in the Park With George @ Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, Oakland Stephen Sondheim’s beautiful sitrring Pulitzer Prize-winning musical about painter George Seurat (and his artistic grandson) is performed by Youth Musical Theatre Company. $13-$26. Fri & Sat 7pm. Sun 2pm. Thru March 9. 1428 Alice St., Oakland. (510) 595-5514. www.ymtcberkeley.org/sunday-in-the-park

Ubu Roi @ Exit on Taylor Cutting Ball Theater’s production of Alfred Jarry’s 1896 parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (the original premiere induced riots, and is considered a pivotal early experimental absurd comedy), newly translated by Rob Melrose. $10-$50. Thu 7:30, Fri & Sat 8pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 5pm. Extended thru March 9. 277 Taylor St. 525-1205. www.cuttingball.com

February 27-March 5, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Meditation Group @ LGBT Center

Sat 1

New weekly non-sectarian meditation group is led by Daishin Sunseri; part of the Let’s Kick ASS AIDS Survivor Syndrome support group. Tuesdays, 5pm, 1800 Market St. www.LetsKickASS.org www.sfcenter.org

The Black Woman is God @ SF Public Library Karen Seneferu curated this exhibit focusing on the art of Tarika Lewis, Karen Seneferu, Malik Seneferu, Sydney “Sage” Cain and Ajuan Mance, whose work explores the divinity of Blackness. Thru May 15. African American Center, 100 Larkin St., www.sfpl.org

Feisty Old Jew @ The Marsh Charlie Veron’s new solo show about a fictional elder man who hitches a ride with surfer-hipsters, and rants about what he hates about the 21st century. $25-$100. Sat 8pm, Sun 7pm. Thru March 16. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

The News @ SOMArts Cultural Center

Sun 2 Friction Quartet at the Hot Air Music Festival

Hidden Cities @ SOMArts Cultural Center

Hot Air Music Festival @ SF Conservatory of Music

Experiments and Explorations, a group exhibition of interactive and site-specific art that rethink urban space. Tue-Fri 12pm7pm. Sat 12pm-5pm. Thru March 22. 934 Brannan St. www.somarts.org

Day-long series of concerts of contemporary experimental music: Mobius Trio, Friction Quartet, New Keys, Areon Flutes. Premieres and recent works by Samuel Carl Adams, Ryan Brown, Ian Dicke, David Garner, Belinda Reynolds and Jonathan Russell as well as classics by Crumb, Glass and Lutoslawski. Free. 12:30pm-9pm. 50 Oak St. www.hotairmusicfestival.com

The House That Will Not Stand @ Berkeley Repertory World premiere of local playwright Marcus Gardley’s historical drama about Creole Women in 1830s New Orleans who had common-law marriages with wealthy white men. $29-$59. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Also Sat & Sun 2pm.Thru March 16. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2918. www.berkeleyrep.org

Marga Gomez @ The Marsh Lovebirds, the lesbian comic’s new solo show, portrays an array of wacky characters, from different eras, each searching for love. $15-$50. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat. 8:30pm. Thru March 15. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Scary Cow Film Festival @ Castro Theatre The annual independent film festival includes a screening of the charming gender-variant Philipino film about a boy who identifies with the princess in his father’s fable-telling. $10-$25 (includes VIP after-party with the filmmakers; beer/ wine, soft drinks and tacos). 3pm-9pm. 429 Castro St. www.scarycow.com www.castrotheatre.com

Ladysmith Black Mambazo @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley The four-time Grammy-winning South African vocal ensemble returns for a rousing live concert. $18-$48. 7pm. Bancroft Way at Dana St., UC Berkeley campus. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

Saint Petersburg Philharmonic @ Davies Hall The Russian orchestra performs works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, and Giya Kanchell. $15-$96. Also March 3, 8pm. 201 Van Ness Ave. 864-6000. www.sfsymphony.org

The Speakeasy @ Boxcar Theatre Nick A. Olivero’s immersive up-close experiental theatrical spectacle, where audience members enjoy a three-hour retro-drama while gambling and drinking at a “speakeasy” dive bar. $60-$90. Thu, Fri & Sat, admission times 7:40-8pm. Thru March 15. (hush! Address provided for guests only!) www.boxcartheatre.org

The unoffical anti-Oscar party includes viewing in the theatre with catty comments encouraged, drinks, nibblies (but not too much, so bring your own food and bevs) and irreverent comments from the peanut gallery. $12-$15. 3:45pm-11pm. 3117 16th St. www.roxie.com

Yellow @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Bay Area premiere of Del Shores’ new play about a Southern family, and how a catastrophe forces them to unite. $25-$45. Previews. Opening night March 1. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru March 23. 25 Van Ness ave, lower level. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

Georgia O’Keeffe @ de Young Museum Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George, a new exhibit of paintings focusing on the artist’s New York landscapes. $25. Thru May 11. Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoungmuseum.org

Our Vast Queer Past @ GLBT History Museum

Linedrives and Lipstick @ SF Public Library

Annual large-scale sale of thousands of donated used items; clothes, ceramics, records, books, dishware antiques and much more. Free. 10am-4pm. Also Mar. 2. 333 Lancaster St. Oakland. www.museumca.org www.whiteelephantsale.org

Shane Doyle

David Perry’s interviews with notable LGBT people; this week, immigrant HIV activist Jorge Rodrguez, and Shane Mayer of BRITE (Bayview Residents Improving Their Environment). Mon-Fri 11:30am, Sat & Sun 10:30pm. Channel 104.

Academy of Friends Gala @ Terra Gallery

White Elephant Sale @ Oakland Museum

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

10 Percent @ Comcast

Sun 2

A “Best of Fringe” show, Jill Vice’s solo work portrays an array of characters from the bartending world. $15-$50. Sat 5pm, Sun 7pm. Thru April 6. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Sun 2

Mon 3

Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight , a special March 3, 7pm screening of the fascinating documentary film about drag icon Vicki Marlene. $5. Also, Trans in the Tenderloin Since the 1960s: a Roundtable, moderated by GLBT History Museum curator Don Romesburg, will feature Tamara Ching, Felicia Elizondo, Ronnie Lynn and Veronika Lee-Tillman, March 6, 7pm. See the exhibit, Vicki Marlane: I’m Your Lady, which displays video, images and ephemera documenting the pioneering local drag, cabaret and carnival perfomer, known for decades of performances. Thru Feb 28. Also, The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus: Celebrating 35 Years of Activism Through Song, includes archival materials from the historic chorus, lead-curated by Tom Burtch, with a touch-screen display by multimedia producer John Raines. And, Premarital Bonds: Creating Family Before Marriage Equality. Other permanent exhibits as well. Reg. hours Mon-Sat 11am7pm (closed Tue.) Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

Tipped & Tipsy @ The Marsh

The 24th annual Oscar-viewing party and fundraiser for local AIDS/HIV nonprofits this year takes on an Emerald City theme. Expect many Friends of Dorothy, emerald fashions, flying monkeys and even a good/ bad witch or two as you enjoy drinks, food, desserts, auction items and a festive Academy Awards event. $350 and up. 5pm-11:30pm. 511 Harrison St. 995-9890. www.academyoffriends.org

Igor Sazevich @ Gallery Route One, Point Reyes Station Exhibit of the Inverness painter’s works, at the scenic Headlands arts center. Reg. hours Wed-Mon 11am-5pm. 11101 Highway One, Point Reyes Station. www.galleryrouteone.org

Wed 5 Men’s Story Project @ Roxie Theatre Some Silences are Meant to be Broken, Dr. Josie Lehrer’s documentary film about rethinking ideas of masculinity, which includes South American transgender celebrities and gay scholars; in Spanish with English subtitles. Director Lehrer’s Q&A follows the screening. $10. 7pm. 3117 16th St. www.roxie.com

Yoga: The Art of Transformation @ Asian Art Museum New exhibit of visual art representing the 2,500-year-old health practice. Other ongoing exhibits as well. Free (members)-$12. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. 200 Larkin St. 581-3500. www.asianart.org

Up the Oscars @ Roxie Theatre

SF History Expo @ Old Mint The GLBT Historical Society and 40 other historical organizations share pop-up exhibits, talks and more at this two-day event. $5. 11am-5pm. Also Mar. 2, 11am4pm. 88 5th st. at Mission. www.sfhistoryexpo.org

The monthly experimental performance showcase this month features Queer Rebels Productions’ curated program, with Queer Harlem, Spirit: Queer AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders), Artivism, and Exploding Lineage experimental films. Featured performers include Star Amerasu, Jeepneys, Lambert Moss, Laura Hyunjhee Kim, Miss Persia and Moon Ray Ra. $5. 7:30pm. 934 Brannan St. www.somarts.org

The Untold Story of Women’s Baseball, an exhibit of images, and ephemera that, with text, tells the story of the world of women’s baseball since the 1870s. Thru March 16. Jewett Gallery, main branch, 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

Tue 4 Anton Schwartz, Taylor Eigsti @ Yoshi’s Oakland CD release party for experimental jazz bandleader and saxophonist Schwartz’ Flash Mob, with guest pianist Eigsti. $20. 8pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Jack London Square. (510) 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

Tue 4

Laura Hyunjhee Kim at The News

Thu 6 David Sokosh: American Tintypes @ Robert Tat Gallery The fine art photography gallery presents an exhibit of Sokosh’s contemporary faux-vintage imagery, created with a 19th-century Wet-Plate Collodion process. (artist talke April 5). Tue-Sat 11am5:30pm. Thru May 31. 49 Geary St., #410. 781-1122. www.roberttat.com

Geoff Hoyle @ The Marsh, Berkeley The veteran comic actor returns with his solo show, Geezer, a nostalgic meditation on his lengthy career and life. $25-$50. Thu 8pm. Sat. 5pm. Extended thru April 26. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Michelle Coltrane @ Yoshi’s Oakland Enjoy classic and contemproary jazz from the talented singer, who performs music from her new CD. $25. 8pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Jack London Square. (510) 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

Robert Moses’ Kin @ ODC Theater Draft/BY Series, Moses’ latest work, presented as part of the Black Choreographers Festival. $18-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm. 3153 17th St. 863-9834. www.odcdance.org

Xavier Castellanos @ Munchboxx Café Exhibit of the local artist’s colorful landscapes. Artist reception March 6. 12pm-2pm. Thru Mar 28. 643 Clay St. www.munchboxx.wix.com/cafe#!

To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com. Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication. For bar and nightlife events, go to www.bartabsf.com, and our new merged section, www.ebar.com/bartab

<< Music

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 27-March 5, 2014

Master of the art-song

by Tim Pfaff

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s I write, Jonas Kaufmann is performing a Lieder recital at Carnegie Hall, between appearances as Werther in the Met’s new production. The live broadcast of the premiere two days before he changed into a tux for Carnegie left no doubt that Kaufmann remains both the most vocally gifted and musically imaginative tenor – singer, probably – on the boards these days. Few singers of his kind appear on the opera stage and the recital platform with as little time to recalibrate the voice in-between. My only concern about Kaufmann’s recital is that it should be getting to the encores about now, and I’m not there. The Werther premiere coincided with the international release of Kaufmann’s new recording of Schubert’s Winterreise (Sony), with his regular recital partner, pianist Helmut Deutsch – and Kaufmann’s arrival on disc as a fully formed artist of the song. His earlier recordings of Strauss and Schubert songs, while splendid, hinted at the struggle of putting the genie of a large and preternaturally open voice into the bottle of a more contained, if no less expressive, form. Jon Vickers, a singer with whom Kaufmann is often compared, demonstrated in a recording that sprawled across two CDs that it is possible to over-sing even this high-water mark of the song cycle. Kaufmann’s new Winterreise is overwhelming on its own, and the music’s, terms. When the almost certainly gay Schubert revealed the cycle to the circle of friends in which many of his songs were first heard, they confessed their shock at the songs’ raw emotional power and fearsome exploration of the terrain of despair. That cautionary judgment has been catnip to re-

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cent generations of singers, who have taken the cycle’s sparse yet unavoidable narrative as a call to perform it as a headlong, post-R.D. Laing descent into madness. The music, formidable, can bear that, yet Kaufmann, like the greatest of his forebears, shows there’s something more involving and nearer cathartic about tracing the lovelorn path of the winter wanderer of the poems with wholly musical means, a kaleidoscope of rapidly shifting feelings – and no scheme. This is a Winterreise by a born stage animal, but its power lies in the singer’s having considered the notes and words from every angle in the interest of rendering them exposed, direct, and honest in the moment. Like the best of their recent predecessors, Kaufmann and Deutsch – a pianist of the finest sensibility and a full musical partner here – perform from Schubert’s autograph score as well as from standard printed editions. That speaks to their deep investment in the enterprise and even deeper dedication to the composer. In “Letzte Hoffnung” (“Last Hope”), that keen focus yields a sound world that reaches forward to Webern, with dancing, seemingly detached notes in the piano swarming around the hollowedout phrases of the singer. But the glimpse of his real destination – the grave, foreshadowed in the previous song – becomes, in the final stanza, a spectral vision. Brilliantly, Schubert repeats (as the poet does not) the word for “weep” in the final line – and then repeats the line – and Kaufmann’s way with the word turns it from cry to outcry. The musicians follow Schubert’s lead, manifest from the beginning, in bursting the bounds of strophic songs, ones with repeated verses that echo one another but in this cycle slip their restraints to mirror the uncontrollable tangents of the wanderer’s

increasingly wild, sundered mind. The strains of folksong sound in the background of “Auf dem Flusse” (“On the River”), but Kaufmann and Deutsch find the slippery deep feelings within its little story, until they arrive at the broken final verse in which the wanderer howls at the recognition of his own heart in the “raging torrents” of the water beneath the river’s frozen surface. These musicians know how to do cold, and the horror of cold, and more than once listening to this cycle I thought of the indelible image of Kaufmann dying in the cold in the final act of Humperdinck’s Koenigskinder. Everywhere, Kauffman’s delectation of the sounds and sense of his mother tongue provides revelations, but never with a sense of fussing over words or over-articulating their sounds. There’s a thesaurus of German in “Fruehlingstraum” (“Dream of Spring”), with its alternating verses of nimble lyricism and encroaching despair, crowned by the heavy final chord Deutsch delivers with softly crushing weight. The final three songs are a dark triptych. In an interview included in the notes, Kaufmann says that the defiant final cry in “Mut” (“Courage”) – “If there is not God on earth, we ourselves are gods!” – is that of a man who has decided to play god in his own life, by taking it. “Die Nebensonnen” (“The Mock Suns”) is a haunting depiction of a departing soul’s hallucination of the world, and “Der Leiermann” (“The Hurdy-Gurdy Man”) fixes on the spectral presence that the wanderer – in a perfectly calibrated crescendo-decrescendo from Kaufmann – momentarily thinks might grind away under his songs. Gerald Finley, another of the great Lieder singers of our time, has an eagerly awaited Winterreise due out imminently. He could be excused for hating this disc.t

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Fine Art>>

February 27-March 5, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Georgia on our mind by Sura Wood

hen it comes to artist biography, it’s tempting to try and pinpoint where and when a creative legend found their footing, and to determine the combination of alchemy and circumstance that gave birth to the signature style by which we know them today. For the organizers behind Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George, the latest show at the de Young Museum, that place and time was the family estate of Alfred Stieglitz in upstate New York, where O’Keeffe spent part of each year, and produced some 200 works during the period 1918-34. The show posits the theory that it was at the Lake George retreat that she made the transition from teacher to artist in earnest, and developed an approach, personal vision and career that would reach full maturity 15 years later in New Mexico, separate from Stieglitz, the art dealer and photographer who was her soulmate, mentor, iconographer, and for a time, her husband. It wasn’t until 1949, three years after he died, that O’Keeffe metaphorically left home and decamped for the Southwest. The exhibition’s 55 paintings attest to O’Keeffe’s burgeoning interest in the natural world seen in the magnified internal mechanics of plants that many have construed as female genitalia. Let’s just say she had a singular way with petunias, not to mention jack-in-the-pulpits and assorted fruits and vegetables. Landscapes, plant life and trees that sprang from her memory and imagination predominate, while animals and people are conspicuously absent. Important emotional connections are inferred symbolically, as in “Coat and Red” (1919), which invokes her kindred spirit, Stieglitz, manifested through the black overcoat with red lining he often wore. A decade later her largest leaf composition, the poignant “Brown and Tan Leaves” (1928), suggests a painful domestic drama, the work a surrogate for her dying relationship with Stieglitz. The biggest yellow leaf, tattered at its uppermost edges, the sentinel at the center of the trio and the picture, represents Stieglitz, who was then in his 60s. The stalwart, upright brown leaf to the left may be O’Keeffe, and a small leaf on the upper right encroaching on the couple from the opposite side could be a stand-in for Dorothy Norman, the young woman in her 20s with whom Stieglitz had begun an affair. It’s a fractured family portrait conveying O’Keeffe’s mental state and the deterioration of her bond with Stieglitz.

Many but not all of the paintings will feel familiar to anyone who has a passing acquaintance with 20th-century American art in general, and O’Keeffe in particular. Thoughtful and at times overly speculative and analytical in making its case, the exhibition is missing a wow factor, though there are a few noteworthy exceptions. Take the spectacular “Starlight Night, Lake George” (1922), which hasn’t been seen in public since 1923. The stunning work is an expanse of midnight blue where starbursts, dots of reflected starlight, dapple the folds of water below, and beams of electric light from a barely perceptible bridge shine forth like beacons in the night. The first gallery of smallscale, early abstract paintings announces a proclivity for bold use of color right out of the gate. In “Series 1-No. 10A” and “No. 10” (1919), for example, twin white mounds in the foreground, maybe the artist’s bent knees in front of her as she worked or perhaps a woman’s breasts, are framed by dark foliage, with mountains and water in the background. “Untitled” (1918) depicts a distant fire blazing in the Adirondacks, with dense plumes of orange surrounded by cooler hues that may or may not prevail. Stieglitz’s presence looms large in the show, if only as a behind-thescenes puppet-master and mythmaker. He created a narrative and enthralling image for O’Keeffe, which morphed into a brand she has never fully escaped. Even 30 years after her death, her persona continues to overshadow her work and complicates an assessment of it. Presaging the cult of celebrity, there may be no other artist as “imaged” as she. For his part, Stieglitz took over 300 pictures of her, including the infamous 1921 nudes he shot and exhibited. The latter contributed, along with the advent of Freudian psychology, to the sexualized interpretation of her paintings, especially her flower studies. Later, feminists lionized her as a pioneer, a coronation she resisted. Eight of Stieglitz’s hypnotic black & white portraits of the imperious O’Keeffe swathed in black – the artist as remote, supremely self-contained high priestess – are on view, and their inclusion helps perpetuate the conflation of biography with her art. A footnote to the disparity between myth and reality: In the 1920s, the earth goddess and latter-day revered lady of the desert Southwest lived in the tallest skyscraper in New York City, the Shelton Hotel, where a florist delivered the petunias she immortalized. (Through May 11.)t

Rick Gerharter

Included in the current exhibit Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George, now at the de Young Museum, is a Jack-in-the-Pulpit vase by Louis Comfort Tiffany from 1900, an artistic precedent for the George O’Keeffe series of jack-in-the-pulpit paintings seen on the rear wall.

Rick Gerharter

Erin B. Coe, Chief Curator of the Hyde Collection in Glen Falls, NY, speaks about Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Flagpole,” one of the paintings in the exhibit Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George, now at the de Young Museum.

<< Film

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 27-March 5, 2014

Building self-esteem in shop class by David Lamble

“

’m not leaving because I want to leave, I’m leaving because there’s nothing to keep me here.” This succinct mission statement slips from the lips of Cameron, a jovial, rural, white North Carolina teenager getting by on a Domino’s Pizza diet in a town, Windsor, N.C., where dreams usually die long before childhood’s end. Cameron is among a racially diverse group of ordinary high school kids whom we meet in the course of If You Build It, a hands-on doc that takes us through a school year where the kids learn not only how to build things, but more importantly, how to imagine things worth constructing, structures that will help redefine life in their out-of-the-way part of the world.

I’m a rather odd one to review what amounts to a film about a super shop class, because my time in Mr. Q’s 7th-grade shop class was the most wretched chapter in my whole educational career. Remember Ezra Miller’s sassy queer-boy Patrick, who wages witty verbal war on his high-school shop teacher, a high point of the hit LGBT-content film The Perks of Being a Wallflower? Well, sadly, Patrick’s devastating one-liners were well beyond my abilities during a class from which I emerged with not even a mangled ashtray to prove that I was there. The Windsor High students who land in Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller’s super shop class have at first little inkling that these mild-mannered school radicals will, in the course of nine months, indoctrinate them into imagining a bright-

Students in designer-activists Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller’s shop class, in If You Build It.

er future for both themselves and their town. Pilloton and Miller slyly spread their gospel of design one step at a time. First they get the kids to imagine constructing something as practical as a chicken coop. Once the needs of the chickens and their

eggs have been met, the class starts to dream about a big final project – in this case, an airy enclosure to house a weekly farmer’s market. A big plus in director Patrick Creadon’s time-lapse documentary is how he imbeds us with the

kids, partly through having one of the students shoot daily snippets of their steps to new lives beyond shop. One of their unacknowledged victories will be apparent to older generations who will recall a time, say the tumultuous 1960s, when it would have been unimaginable for black and white kids, girls as well as boys, to work the wood saws side-by-side. Sadly, Creadon was apparently unable to convince skeptics of the Pilloton/Miller methods on the local school board to voice their critique on-camera. Instead we have a splendid record of the class, a view of their final work, and the knowledge that these teachers are now literally among us, for the Pilloton/ Miller methods, known as Studio H, are currently on display at Berkeley’s Realm Charter school.t If You Build It opens Friday at Landmark’s Opera Plaza in San Francisco and the Shattuck Cinema in Berkeley. For more info on the program, please consult www.studio-h.org.

Mad men by Brian Jackle

Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era by Michael Kimmel (Nation Books) nger seems to be a hallmark of our culture today, dominating not only our state and national politics, but also our daily interactions, whether it be riding Muni or conversations at Starbucks. The men discussed in Stony Brook University sociologist Michael Kimmel’s Angry White Men are full of rage, with a long list of complaints aimed towards women, minorities, immigrants, and LGBT people, but never blaming themselves. These angry white men have lived through 40 years of economic shifts and downturns and a new period of racial and gender equality, yet have clung to a traditional notion of manhood (physical strength, self-control, power) that defined their father’s and grandfather’s eras but is now anachronistic. These middle- and lower-working-class men remain stuck in a groove of what Kimmel terms aggrieved entitlement, namely, “a sense that those benefits white men believed were their due have been snatched away from them.” Victims of underemployment and wage stagnation, they believe they have worked hard and kept out of trouble, but are not living the American Dream they feel is their birthright. These downwardly mobile white men blame race and gender factors for their troubles, condemning those below them in the social hierarchy instead of those socioeconomically above them who are the real cause of their problems. As Kimmel notes, economic uncertainty in this group has been fueled by globalization factors such as multinational corporations, outsourcing, predatory lending, and downsizing, as well as a federal bureaucracy either indifferent to their situation or complicit in their collapse. Kimmel believes these problems are not caused by race, gender, or sexual orientation, but by class, with wealth in the U.S. concentrated in the top 1% of the population, and government policies that favor the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us. These men should be uniting in common interest with people in their same economic class to fight the injustice affecting all of them. Kimmel focuses less on mainstream white male followers of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, or

the Tea Party, and more on fringe groups such as white supremacists and school/workplace shooters, only a small subset of this disempowered population. Only in the father’s rights movement are their grievances considered legitimate. Despite separation, fathers want to remain a loving presence in their children’s lives. Kimmel argues persuasively that seeking changes in divorce and custody laws is a sign most men are adapting to fairer notions of male responsibility. Clearly, America is heading towards more inclusivity and diversity, with most men accommodating themselves towards greater equity in their relationships and working lives. Ironically, there is more gender, racial, and sexual equality now than ever before, yet greater class inequality than we have experienced in over a century. Kimmel believes rather than backtracking to a male 1950s utopia that never existed, the future with resources apportioned for a more democratic meritocracy will make men happier and healthier. While most of Kimmel’s arguments ring true, with regards to the

role of LGBT people in his analysis, he comes up deficient in two regards. First, while these angry white men believe gay people have feminized images of men, Kimmel has failed to give credit to queers for helping our culture redefine and adjust to new definitions of what it means to be a man. Greater parity in relationships and more active roles as father and spouse (i.e., sharing housework duties) have long been modeled by gays and lesbians. With greater acceptance and social visibility, gays have influenced heterosexuals, especially with the idea that men can still play some feminine roles (sexual and otherwise) and remain masculine. Secondly, as Kimmel details in his profile of school shooters, the worst name that kids call each other is still faggot, and with gaybaiting almost becoming a norm, society has not done enough to stop bullying. As more LGBT people come out such as NFL-to-be player Michael Sam, broadcaster Robin Roberts, and actress Ellen Page, the stigma of being gay will continue to decline. One day soon, it might be considered cool to be a sexual minority.t

Film>>

February 27-March 5, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

Run, Victor, run! by David Lamble

hat would you do if your mission was to jump-start a national cinema for a small, emerging nation that almost nobody hereabouts has ever heard of? Try dropping a soulful teenage boy with a large wheelbarrow into an eightsquare-block urban market whose products range from off-brand cell phones, fruits and vegetables to sinister white powders and murderfor-hire. Give that boy an annoying female companion his own age, with the mission of outwitting a gaggle of unreliable adult authority figures. Then hand him seven sealed boxes with the instructions to “just get lost for a while.” Now you have the ingredients for 7 Boxes, a funny, high-speed thriller that’s exhausting but never boring for its 100 minutes of hyperkinetic screen time. Victor (dark-haired beauty Celso Franco, making a credible bid to become possibly the first movie star from landlocked Paraguay) captures our attention at first by doing as little as possible. For the first half of TV vets Juan Carlos Maneglia and Tana Schembori’s debut feature, Victor is the least interesting person onscreen. Only as it becomes clear that the teen’s precious cargo may be of a

AOF gala

From page 13

“For a lot of San Francisco partygoers, this is a big night of their year,” says AOF Marketing and PR Chair Gil Padia. “It’s great for people-watching, but it’s a party with a purpose. My favorite part of the event is that it helps a lot of great organizations. The money that they receive really helps them to achieve their goals.” This year’s beneficiary organizations include Clinica Esperanza at the Mission Neighborhood Health Center, Maitri, Pets Are Wonderful Support (PAWS), Project Open Hand, Shanti Project, and for the first time, LGBTQ Connection of Napa County. The support of the gala’s underwriters and major sponsors ensures that 100% of the ticket sales will go directly to the beneficiary organizations. In addition to presenting sponsor Nordstrom, major sponsors include MercedesBenz San Francisco, Fitness SF, San Francisco magazine, Classic Party Rentals, Smirnoff, Ketel One Vodka, and Terra Gallery, which will become the Land of Oz for the evening. “One of the main things that’s going to be different this year is the movie-set decor and effects that will follow a lot of thematic elements from The Wizard of Oz,” says AOF Chairman Howard Edelman. In addition to capturing the film’s famous switch from the black-andwhite Kansas to the Technicolor Oz, various rooms and floors of the

Victor (Celso Franco) in a scene from director Juan Carlos Maneglia and Tana Schembori’s 7 Boxes.

grisly nature do we start to fear that our boy may not survive the film’s shootout climax. With basically two expressions – silly-sweet dreamer and startled urchin whose Bambi-inthe-headlights expression suggests he’s just been caught with his pants

down – Victor is mostly the verbal and physical punching-bag for the hapless members of a sinister if barely competent drug ring operating out of a small meat market. While some North American critics have likened 7 Boxes’ sizzling pace

Terra Gallery will be transformed into iconic Oz scenes, including the poppy field and the Emerald City. Guests will mingle among Oz characters as they dine on complimentary food and drink from the toast of Bay Area restaurants, caterers and wineries. But caution is advised before helping yourself to fruit from an unfamiliar apple tree. Since The Wizard of Oz is especially beloved by the gay community, expect the guests themselves to be inspired to wear Oz-themed fashions as well. This is bound to be one year when it’s not as difficult as usual to tell the difference between a good witch and a bad witch. Kicking off the post-Oscar entertainment will be a high-energy fashion show sponsored by Members of Melange, which promotes diversity in fashion. Three designers have created original fashions that will reflect the evening’s Oz theme. Peruvian Darignia Garcia will capture Kansas; SF designer Tuan Tran will evoke The Land of Oz; and couture designer and Dark Beauty magazine CEO Topher Adam will echo the Witch’s Castle. As in years past, the post-telecast DJ dance party promises to be jolly good fun.

role as real-life AIDS patient Ron Woodroof, who hatched a scheme to get life-saving drugs to hundreds of AIDS victims during the early days of the epidemic. While it may not score with its Best Picture, Original Screenplay or Film Editing nominations, the film is likely to win for its harrowing transformations in the Makeup and Hairstyling category. Jared Leto is a shoo-in for Best Supporting Actor in his role as the transgender character Rayon, who becomes Woodroof ’s inspirational partner in crime. If so, he’ll join Boys Don’t Cry’s Hilary Swank, who is the only other actor to win an Oscar in a transgender role. While several actors have been nominated for cross-dressing roles, the short list of actors nominated for transgender roles goes back to Chris Sarandon in 1975’s Dog Day Afternoon, and includes Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game, John Lithgow in The World According to Garp, and Felicity Huffman in Transamerica. The LGBT community may have a lot to celebrate come Oscar night, and what better place to do it than the Merry Old Land of Oz? t

All eyes on ‘Dallas’

AIDS organizations will not only be represented at the gala, but at the Oscar ceremony itself, thanks to the six nominations for Dallas Buyers Club. Matthew McConaughey is certain to win Best Actor for his

to Hollywood’s Fast and Furious franchise, I suggest a more apt analogy is the late-1990s German comedy Run Lola Run, where a ditzy heroine imitates a human hamster on a wheel in a film-long attempt to save her goofy boyfriend from evil forc-

es. Combine this with the pseudodetective genre Wayne Wang used in his SF Chinatown debut Chan Is Missing, and you get an approximation of the entertainment value of sticking around long enough to learn what’s in those boxes. It’s taken Paraguay a while to get up to speed making movies. It’s a country that was almost swallowed alive by its bigger, more rapacious neighbors, Brazil and Argentina. But based on 7 Boxes, which has enjoyed critical raves in North American festivals, I can see a mini-New Wave emerging such as the one enjoyed by Argentina during its peso crisis. 7 Boxes’ creators nimbly hang an absurdist plot on the cultural pratfalls of a society whose European facade conceals centuries of indigenous peoples trying to carve out a living. Don’t go to 7 Boxes expecting to catch a glimpse of whatever natural beauty Paraguay’s capitol Asuncion may have, because this baby could as easily have been filmed on a set by the dried-up LA River. Everything here lies in the head of a nimblefooted teen nurtured on snippets of American crime movies. As the suspense builds and the bad guys are closing in, Victor’s sister whispers helpfully, “They shot him at pointblank range. Did you see anything?”t

Return to the Emerald City, Academy of Friends’ 34th Annual Academy Awards Night Gala, Sun., March 2, 5-11:30 p.m., Terra Gallery, 511 Harrison St., SF. Tickets: $250 (online until Fri., 2/28), $300 at the door (if available), (415) 995-9890, www.academyoffriends.org

STEVENUNDERHILLPHOTOGRAPHY weddings • headshots• portraits

Steven Underhill

Line-up of golden Oscar guys at a previous Academy of Friends Academy Awards Night Gala.

415-370-7152

www.stevenunderhill.com • stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

The

Tell us who your Besties are! Complete and mail this ballot to the address below before March 5, 2014 or vote online at: www.ebar.com by clicking on the Besties logo You could win one of the following prizes just for voting for your favorite places, people and things to do in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

• Grand Prize: MAUI SUNSEEKER VACATION: Win a 7-night stay at Hawaii’s largest gay-owned and operated resort • Second Prize: SAN FRANCISCO BALLET: Two Tickets to the San Francisco Ballet’s Nite Out on April 4 • Third Prize: SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS HOME GAME & VIP PARKING: Two club level tickets behind home plate and VIP lot parking to a San Francisco Giant’s home game (date to be determined)

COMMUNITY Best LGBT Event _______________ Best LGBT Fundraiser _______________ Best LGBT Blog/Website _______________ Best LGBT Nonprofit _______________ Best LGBT Sports League _______________ RESTAURANTS Best Breakfast _______________ Best Brunch _______________ Best Lunch _______________ Best Dinner _______________ Best Dessert _______________ Best Outdoor Patio _______________ Best Restaurant with a View _____________ Best Late-Night Restaurant _____________ NIGHTLIFE Best Bar Food (place) _______________ Best Mixed Drink _______________ Best Place to Meet Men _______________ Best Place to Meet Women _____________ Best Place to Meet Transgender People _______________ Best Dance Floor _______________ Best Gay/Gay-Friendly Bar ______________ Best Bang for Your Buck Bar ____________ Best Neighborhood Bar _______________ Best Bar with a Patio _______________ Best Bar with a Pool Table ______________ Best Sports Bar _______________ Best Theme Night _______________

PEOPLE/CITY LIVING Best LGBT Activist _______________ Best LGBT Youth Activist (25 and under) _______________ Best Bartender (Individual) _____________ Best DJ _______________ Best Personal Trainer _______________ Best Resource for LGBT Seniors _______________ Best Photographer _______________ Best Local Politician _______________ Best Local Politician You Love to Hate _______________ Best Place to Pamper Your Pets _______________ Best Dentist _______________ Best Healthcare Provider _______________ Best Attorney _______________ Best Tax Preparer _______________ Best Day Spa _______________ Best Place to Get Your Hair Done _______________ Best Nail Salon _______________ Best Place for a First Date _______________ Best Place to Breakup _______________ SHOPPING/SEX/ROMANCE Best Wedding Venue _______________ Best Place to Buy Wedding Attire _______________ Best Jewelry _______________ Best Place to Buy Eyewear _______________

You must answer at least 30 questions and submit to Bay Area Reporter, 225 Bush Street, Suite 1700, San Francisco, CA 94104 by Wednesday, March 5, 2014 to qualify. Or go to www.ebar.com to submit online. Ballots will be accepted from February 6, 2014 to March 5, 2014. One ballot per person. Bay Area Reporter staff are not eligible for prize drawing. Prize winners and results of the Besties will be published in our 44th Anniversary Issue on April 3, 2014.

Best Bank _______________ Best Bookstore _______________ Best Adult Store _______________ Best Bicycle Shop _______________ Best Clothing Store (Men) _____________ Best Clothing Store (Women) ____________ Best Vintage Clothing Store _____________ Best Shoe Store _______________ Best Place to Get Fit _______________ Best Place to Buy a Car _______________ Best Auto Mechanic _______________ Best Place to Buy Sex Toys _____________ Best Sex Club _______________ Best Cruising Spot _______________ Best Medical Marijuana Dispensary _______________ ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Best Drag Show _______________ Best Fair or Festival _______________ Best Live Music Venue _______________ Best Theater Group _______________ Best Movie Theater _______________ Best Museum _______________ Best Dance Company _______________ EAST BAY Best Politician _______________ Best Bar _______________ Best Restaurant _______________ Best Fair or Festival _______________ Best Reason to Cross the Bay Bridge _______________

NAME ___________________________________* CITY_________________________STATE_______ ZIP__________COUNTRY____________________* EMAIL ADDRESS __________________________* *Required to qualify for prize drawing. One ballot per person.

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LEATHER

PERSONALS Vol. 44 • No. 9 • February 27-March 5, 2014 Misty Blue and J.P. Soto are crowned the new Empresss and Emperor.

Crowning

Achievement On the Town: Imperial Coronation

by Donna Sachet

an Francisco’s 49th annual Imperial Coronation, themed A Killer View: An Evening of International Mystery, Bond Style, was one for the record books: two qualified candidates for Emperor and two for Empress, the best attendance in a decade, gorgeous sets, extraordinary floral décor, dazzling entertainment, show-stopping emotional moments, and nearly $60,000 given away to other charitable organizations that night! See page 2 >>

Rich Stadtmiller

Academerryment Oscar Parties on the Cheap

The 2012 Academy of Friends gala at the Design Center.

by Ronn Vigh

A festive party-goer and a shiny Oscar at a recent Academy of Friends gala.

I Mike Rosati

honestly cannot name more than two movies nominated for Best Picture at The Academy Awards this year. Nebraska and 12 Years A Slave. That’s it. I only know that because each movie had a star interviewed on late night television recently.

I know what many of you are thinking, my gay card should be revoked immediately. Relax. I’m going to Britney Spears’ concert in Vegas, I see a Broadway show every time I’m in New York, I own two Carol King CDs and I moisturize daily. Do I win some gay points back? See page 4 >>

Steven Underhill

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 27-March 5, 2014

On the Town

From page 1

Let’s start with the candidates. Ray Tilton and J.P. Soto battled it out for Emperor, while Danielle Logan and Misty Blue competed for Empress. For many years, this organization has struggled to find qualified and sometimes simply willing candidates for either office, but this year they signed up early and campaigned down to the wire. Those who attended Saturday night came from far and wide, including Halifax, Calgary, Hawaii, Alaska, Texas, New York, Las Vegas, and Washington State, representing over 40 of the 60-some member courts of the International Court System across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Local attendance was at a historical high as well representing not just the Imperial Family, but the Ducal Family and other San Francisco groups, as well as State Senator Mark Leno, City Treasurer Jose Cisneros, and Supervisors Scott Wiener and David Campos. As they entered the Design Center from the red carpet out front, guests were led from a step-and-repeat VIP set design into the spacious ballroom, where each of the 40 prime tables were accented with lush white

florals by Coco Butter and the front five tables dined on Elite Catering hors d’oeuvres. The stage was appointed with sleek modern furniture, gigantic vases topped with exotic greenery, and enormous video projections. Entertainment was polished and audiencepleasing, including Absolute Empress XXXI Cockatielia’s engaging dance production, the Court of Sacramento’s high-energy, colorful number, Miss Golden Gate 2012 Baby Shaques, traditional dance from Hawaii, and crowdpleasing presentations from each of the four Steven Underhill candidates. Empress Patty McGroin and Emperor Adding to the entertainment were recogni- Drew Cutler. tions of the Emperors and Empresses celebrating support of specific candidates paid anniversaries of their reigns, parparticular attention to the candidate ticularly a professionally produced presentations. Even with voting and deeply emotional look back completed the previous weekend, at the reign of Emperor XVII, each one produced very personal After Norton, Jerry statements through Coletti and the late visually arresting and Absolute Empress emotionally moving XXIV Pat Montclair, numbers. a comic tour de force by As the evening drew to Absolute Empress XXIX a close, Emperor Drew Anita Martini, a touchCutler and Empress ing musical reunion of Patty McGroin distribEmperor XXVII, A.N., uted money primarily to T.J. Istvan and Absolute four charitable organizaEmpress XXXIV Sheba!, and signations, chosen by them at the beginture salutes from Emperor XXXII, ning of their reign, but also to other A. N., Fernando and Absolute groups from the nearly $60,000 they Empress XXXIX China Silk. raised through ongoing monthly (Balloon drop, anybody?) events, special title contests, and The many who were there in other activities.

EDITOR Jim Provenzano DESIGNERS Jay Cribas, Scott King ADVERTISING SALES Scott Wazlowski 415-359-2612 CONTRIBUTORS Ray Aguilera, Race Bannon, Matt Baume, Heather Cassell, Coy Ellison, Michael Flanagan, Dr. Jack Fritscher, Peter Hernandez, John F. Karr, T. Scott King, Sal Meza, David Elijah-Nahmod, Adam Sandel, Donna Sachet, Jim Stewart, Ronn Vigh PHOTOGRAPHY Biron, Wayne Bund, Marques Daniels, Don Eckert, Lydia Gonzales, Rick Gerharter, Jose Guzman-Colon, Georg Lester, Dan Lloyd, Jim Provenzano, Rich Stadtmiller, Monty Suwannukul, Steven Underhill BARtab is published by BAR Media, Inc. PUBLISHER/PRESIDENT Michael M. Yamashita CHAIRMAN Thomas E. Horn VP AND CFO Patrick G. Brown SECRETARY Todd A. Vogt BAR Media, Inc. 225 Bush Street, Suite 1700 San Francisco, CA 94104 (415) 861-5019 www.BARtabSF.com NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media 212.242.6863 LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad Member National Gay Newspaper Guild Copyright © 2014, Bay Area Reporter, a division of BAR Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Steven Underhill

Donna Sachet (left) and visiting royalty.

Rich Stadtmiller

New Empress Misty Blue and Emperor J.P. Soto.

Since its founding by the late Empress Jose Sarria, the Imperial Court has been committed to raising money and the annual amounts have certainly varied, but Drew Cutler and Patty McGroin and their Court of the Wild Kingdom deserve accolades for this substantial total, which will help a wide variety of worthy recipients. With emotional and heart-felt good-byes, video mementos, and musical last walks, they were awarded their permanent titles, numbers, and rings, welcoming them into the San Francisco Family of Monarchs. Thank you, Drew and Patty, on a job very well done. The anticipation of the announcement of the winners of the election was nail-biting, but eventually J.P. Soto and Misty Blue emerged as the winners and were crowned in an elaborate and tradition-laden ceremony which is truly a wonder to behold. As if the room had not dazzled enough, when the crowns, robes, scepters, etc. were revealed on stage, the fairy tale was complete. Celebrations continued at bars and homes throughout the night. The most stalwart arose early the next day for that uniquely San Francisco experience of the Annual Pilgimage to Colma, where Emperor Joshua Norton and since late last year Empress Jose Sarria lie buried close to each other in Woodlawn Cemetery. We led the hardy parade up to the grave sites on that clear Sunday with a Leather color guard and enjoyed music from Bob Sunshine and his quartet

and the SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, heard remarks from Emperor XXXVI, A.N., John Weber, Absolute Empress XXXIII Alexis Miranda, Reverend Don Fox of the SF Night Ministry, and Queen Mother of the Americas Nicole the Great, who now oversees the International Court System. As always, there were moments of whimsical humor and touching nostalgia, but the clearest messages were of preservation of our history, unity of purpose, and the challenge of the future. This organization celebrates 50 years of continuous activity next year and plans are well underway with a gala at City Hall’s Rotunda on February 15, historic displays and speakers all over town, and a constant barrage of information, designed to acquaint a larger audience with the Imperial Court of San Francisco, its iconic leaders, and its ongoing charitable work. Watch this column as details develop. In the little space left, we’ll remind you of the Roast of IML Andy Cross tomorrow night, Mr. SF Leather Contest and Krewe de Kinque Mardi Gras Ball on Saturday, and Academy of Friends Oscar party on Sunday. The party never ends in San Francisco and you’ll know where to go by loyally following this column every other week. But remember, reading about the whirling social scene is one thing; participating is another. Get out there and be a part of it all! t (See more Coronation photos on page 11.)

Read more online at www.ebar.com

February 27-March 5, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Bon Temps

Krewe de Kinque to celebrate Mardi Gras by David-Elijah Nahmod

he Big Easy comes to San Francisco on Saturday, March 1. On that naughty night, Krewe de Kinque will host Bal Masque XI at Club 180 at the Arc of San Francisco. The fun and frolicking will benefit a most worthy cause: raising funds so that SF Night Ministry can establish a Castro District minister. Krewe de Kinque was founded on Mardi Gras night in 2004 when a group of friends in the Castro formed a fraternal organization to celebrate and promote the cultures and traditions of Mardi Gras celebrations from around the world. Krewe parties often raise funds for deserving organizations. For 49 years, Night Ministries has offered crisis intervention, counseling and referrals between 10pm and 4am. The ministers literally walk the streets, offering comfort to the anxious, the lonely, the homeless and others who might be vulnerable and in need. Night Ministries offers a telephone hotline, but will also make sure that anyone who needs face-toface counseling gets it. It’s the only crisis line where people can talk about whatever they need, without restrictions. In addition, the Ministry offers outdoor worship in the Tenderloin and the Mission. They haven’t missed a single night in 49 years, and receive no public funding. So by attending the Bal Masque, you’ll not only party hearty, you’ll be helping those among us who need it most. Gary Virginia, a longtime AIDS and housing activist, is the founder of Krewe de Kinque and was its first King. “Every year we elect a new King and Queen to preside over the Bal Masque (Masked Ball),” Virginia said to BARtab. “For many years I served as the Ball Captain, the producer of the Bal Masque. This year Joseph Nunez is the Ball Captain, and I am helping out in an advisory role.”

Rich Stadtmiller

The royal and regal John Weber.

Rich Stadtmiller Rich Stadtmiller

Reigning King X Kippy Marks and Queen X Kitty Tapata at the 2013 Krewe de Kinque party.

Virginia described what attendees can expect. “Our club member Aaron Priskorn is an accomplished trumpet player and annually plays the National Anthem to kick off the party,” he said. This year’s Grand Marshall, Patrick Gallineaux, leads a traditional Second Line Parade of club members and revelers. The San Francisco-based Dixieland Dyke +3 band will be performing during the VIP reception from 7pm to 8pm.” “Krewe de Kinque’s annual Mardi Gras Ball is consistently one of the most colorful, well produced fundraising events of the year in San Francisco,” said Gallineaux, a well known party promoter. “It’s born of such a positive spirit of giving with quite the dash of ‘anything goes’ bohemian energy that one should always be prepared to be nothing less than surprised. I’m looking forward to debuting a brand new couture outfit in the process of being personally handcrafted by Bay Area designer Thomas Ogden, with lots of feathers, naturally!” Gallineaux said that he was looking forward to performances by Ethel Merman, Xavier Toscano, Valerie Branch, DJ Shawn P, and hosts John Weber and Empress Chablis, not to mention the booze and the Creole cuisine. He also addressed why he was pleased to be supporting Night Ministries. “For some, the hours after the sun goes down are not filled with the glitter and fun so many of us are privileged to enjoy,” he said. “Night Ministry is a crucial resource for those

Arturo Sanchez was a handsome court jester at last year’s event.

who find themselves feeling alone or in crisis during these hours when assistance or support might not be available. To me, Night Ministry truly feels like a Guardian Angel.” “With the increase in the cost of living and the high percentage of LGBT homeless people, more people gravitate to the Castro for security and support,” said Virginia. “A counselor on the street can be a vital part of providing emotional

T H

support or guide people to services.” And so Virginia is hard at work, helping to put together a great event. “There will be numerous drag performances with a Mardi Gras or voodoo magic theme,” he said. “VIPs can enjoy an open bar and a Creole buffet, and there will be a silent auction throughout the night. The highlight of the night will be the announcement and crowning of the King and Queen.” t

A N N U A L

TA S T I N G

Krewe de Kinque’s annual New Orleans-styled gala Saturday, March 1, includes a VIP hosted open bar, Creole buffet, party favors, silent auction advance previews. Reg. admission includes live entertainment, beads, raffle prizes, and more. $25-$50, $100 and up. 7pm11pm. The Arc/Club 180 180 11th St. www.brownpapertickets.com/ event/575161 www.sfkinque.com

E V E N T

Join us at

THE OLD MINT 88 5TH STREET

MARCH

2014

Tickets on sale now!

drink2014.strangertickets.com

VIP 1 PM-2 PM

GA 2 PM-5 PM

BENEFITING THE SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM AT THE MINT SPONSORED BY: Rich Stadtmiller

Krewe De Kinque Queen Deana Dawn sported a hand-crafted authentic Mardi Gras finery.

San Francisco Museum at The Mint

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 27-March 5, 2014

Jim Norrena

Friends at 2103’s AOF gala at Terra.

Oscar parties

From page 1

I just really don’t like to watch movies. But, I do like parties. When it comes to Oscar Sunday, the Academy of Friends Gala is probably the most well known party in San Francisco, if you can afford it. (Tickets are $250) This year’s theme for the 34th annual gala is Return To The Emerald City and attendees will be treated to food, wine, champagne and of course a viewing of the Oscars as they adventure over the rainbow and to Terra Gallery. And with Judy Garland’s kids Liza, Lorna and Joey showing up (allegedly) for a Wizard of Oz 75th anniversary commemoration, the Gay Super Bowl just got gayer. The Academy of Friends gala is definitely a party thrown for a good cause with proceeds going to HIV and AIDS services. However, when I have extra money, it’s usually just enough to splurge on putting both sour cream and guacamole in my burrito. If AOF’s gala is out of your price range, I’ve got you covered with some other Oscar celebration ideas. The Roxie Theatre will be throwing their Up The Oscars Benefit Bash. Event organizer Mike Keegan says that they will provide some

snacks and libations, like any good party host would. However, they encourage others to contribute, like any good party guest should. Keegan also told me of a cool accidental parallel tradition of the yearly Oscar party. “People fall in love! Really! For the past six or seven years strangers have met, made out and stayed together for the long haul just because they happened to come and watch the Oscars with a group of strangers.” I bet if you comply and contribute to the libations table, you’ll increase your chances of this happening. You can also head down Mission Street to the land overrun by weekday commuters donning tucked-in button -downs, pleatedfront khakis and loud barside conversations about stock portfolios. Fortunately, they mostly hide in The East Bay on the weekend. So, strap your HazMat suit on and ride the 14 Mission bus to Novela, a book-themed bar which serves “cocktails with character.” Novela will be throwing an Oscar-viewing party complete with a star-studded cocktail list, freshly popped popcorn, ballots with prizes as well as projectors and flat screen TVs. It’s said that the book is usually better than the movie, so head on down to

Novela and find out for yourself. Local venues in the Castro will also show the Oscars, and my guess is you will probably get a free fashion critique of the celebrities’ outfits from other watchers. The Midnight Sun will offer the largest screens in the Castro to see who wins Best Actor and how clogged his pores are. Beaux boasts that it will offer the most comfortable and luxurious viewing area in the Castro. Meanwhile, Twin Peaks will offer patrons who attended the very first Academy Awards. Perhaps gathering some friends and watching the awards from the comfort of your own home is more your style. The www.Oscars.org website has a party kit assembled to help your gathering along, such as ballots and Oscar bingo cards. Their cards have boxes to check off which include Red Dress, Pregnant Actress and Standing Ovation. You can make your own and add categories such as “B list actress in audience caught by camera talking crap about who just won,” “Actress who bought the dress off the rack” and “Worst Hair Plugs.” You can double down on the fun and play the “Spot the Scientologist” drinking game, where the first person to see one yells out, “Hail Xenu!” and then picks the type of shot everyone in the party must do. Or perhaps every time you honestly hear one of your friends utter, “Girl, what is she wearing?” Bam! You do a shot. Those two drinking games should have you lit before the first commercial break. Just watching to see which male celebrities act more feminine than emcee Ellen DeGeneres is a treat in itself. Heck, the Oscar statue is more feminine than she is. And, if all else fails, you can get drunk and take turns picking lines from B list movies out of a hat and reading them as if Meryl Streep starred in them. Because, lets face it, Meryl Streep is like hot sauce. She spices up everything she touches.t

Sonoma’s festive Oscar party.

The Nominees are…

From elegant to low-brow, choose from several Oscar-viewing events in the Bay Area on March 2. Or just go to your local bar and bribe the management to put it on the TV, if it isn’t on already.

Academy of Friends Gala @ Terra Gallery

CFI Awards Night @ Rafael Film Center

The 24th annual Oscar-viewing party and fundraiser for local AIDS/ HIV nonprofits this year takes on an Emerald City theme. Expect many Friends of Dorothy, emerald fashions, flying monkeys and even a good/bad witch or two as you enjoy drinks, food, desserts, auction items and a festive Academy Awards event. $250 and up. 5pm-11:30pm. 511 Harrison St. 9959890. www.academyoffriends.org

Enjoy appetizers, a gourmet boxed dinner, raffles and silent auctions, and Francis Ford Coppola wines at the theatre’s first Oscar event. $55-$1000. 3:30pm-9pm. Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St., San Rafael. 454-1222. www.cafilm.org

Academy Night @ Rialto Cinema, Sebastopol Food for Thought’s annual Oscar night gala fundraiser includes a champagne reception, food from Cottonwood Catering, awards-viewing, and fun with the “Oscar boys.” 4:30-11pm. $25-$75. 6868 McKinley Ave., Sebastopol. (707) 525-4840. www.fftfoodbank.org/academy-nightsonoma-county

Academy Awards Party @ New Parkway, Oakland The East Bay theatre’s second annual Oscar event includes a wine, beer and cider cash bar, and viewing on cozy sofas and comfy chairs. $20. 4pm11pm. 474 24th St. (510) 658-7900. www.thenewparkway.com

Cocktail Viewing Party @ Variety Screening Room The theatre screening and benefit for Variety Children’s Charity of California includes light bites, a hosted bar and snacks. $70-$85. 4:30-10pm. 581 Market St. 781-3894. varietync.org

Oscar Party @ Novela The cool Mission district straight bar hosts a low-key viewing event, with two big TV screens, tasty cocktails, popcorn, and no cover! 662 Mission St. 896-6500. www.novelasf.com

Up the Oscars @ Roxie Theatre The unoffical anti-Oscar party includes viewing in the theatre with catty comments encouraged, drinks, nibblies (but not too much, so bring your own food and bevs) and irreverent comments from the peanut gallery. $12-$15. 3:45pm-11pm. 3117 16th St. www.roxie.com

Read more online at www.ebar.com

February 27-March 5, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Check, please!

Bare Chest guys keep the donations coming

he Bear Chest Calendar semi-final fifth competition at The Powerhouse last Thursday, February 20 brought out fans and contestants of the decades-strong hunky fundraisers for the AIDS Emergency Fund. The record-breaking donation check of $166, 246.12 brought cheers to attendees and 2014 calendar men alike. Find out more about upcoming events at www.barechest.orgt

Rich Stadtmiller

The enthusiastic check presentation at The Powerhouse.

Rich Stadtmiller Rich Stadtmiller

A donor measures up with raffle tickets.

Hunky current and former calendar men at the Bear Chest event.

Rich Stadtmiller

Two of the recent contestants onstage.

Hot ’n horny hookups.

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6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 27-March 5, 2014

VIP @ Club 21, Oakland

AB f eON THE–MT arch 6 February 27

★

Hip Hop, Top 40, and sexy Latin music; gogo dancers, appetizers, and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $5 after all night. Dancing 9pm-3am. Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Fri 28

Sat 1

Adam Killian @ Nob Hill Theatre The enthusiastic and taletned porn stud performs solo shows at 8pm and live sex shows at 10pm. $25. Also Feb 29. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Bad Girl Cocktail Hour @ The Lexington Club

Freaky Deaky Speak’n Easy

oing out and having fun; taking risks, be they at shows where things are on fire, or exhibits with live fanged animals; yes, they will take place this week.

Thu 27 42nd Street Moon Gala @ Bimbo's Broadway and TV star Megan Hilty headlines a gala fundraiser for the local musical theatre company; enjoy cocktails, dinner, a brief live auction, a Moonglow Cabaret featuring vocalist Klea Blackhurst and performers with the company. Cocktail attire with a dash of red, please. $375$7,500. 6pm-11pm. 1025 Columbus Ave. 255-8207. www.42ndstmoon.org

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre Porn stud Max Cameron leads an onanistic adventure at the historic strip joint's underground playroom. $10. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Comedy Thursdays @ Esta Noche The revamped weekly LGBT- and queerfriendly comedy night at the Mission club is hosted by various comics (1st Thu, Natasha Muse; 2nd Thu, Emily Van Dyke; 3rd Thu Eloisa Bravo and Kimberly Rose; 4th Thu Johan Miranda). No cover; one-drink min. 8pm. 3079 16th St. www.comedybodega.com

The Crib @ 715 Dance night for the younger guys amd gals; DJ Kidd Sysko.:30pm-2am. 715 Harrison St. www.thecribsf.com

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

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

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jockstrapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular new sports bar. 10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Jackie Ryan @ Yoshi's Terrific jazz vocalist performs with her band. $16-$59 (with dinner). 8pm & 10pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

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

Bleu Sugar @ Bench and Bar, Oakland Coochielicious presents the monthly women's night (4th Fridays) with Miss Lady Lana performing, drink specials and and upscale dress code. $10 before 11pm, $15 after. 10pm-3am. 510 17th St. www.bench-and-bar.com

Dave Hollister @ Yoshi's The R&B vocalist performs with his band. $34-$77 (with dinner). 8pm & 10pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Enjoy a festive night of partner same-sex and wheelchair-inclusive dancing with Vima and the Dancing With the Queers crew; hors d'eouvres and cash bar. Vintage/steampunk costumes welcome but not required. $15-$20. 7pm waltz lessons, open dancing 8pm. 200 Grand Ave., Oakland. (510) 430-8820. www.dancingwiththequeers.com www.brownpapertickets.com/ event/558342

Riot Brrrl @ Lone Star Saloon The Riot Grrrl Party is a tribute to Carrie Brownstein, with DJs Crowderism and JimmySweat, and performances by Suppositori Spelling, Little Miss Hot Mess and Coca Kahlo. 8pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Shit & Champagne @ Rebel D'Arcy Drollinger's "whitesploitation" drag satire musical play kicks up the laughs; also starring Matthew Martin. $20-$25. Fri & Sat, 8pm. Extended with an open run. 1772 Market St. at Octavia. www.shitandchampagne.eventbrite.com

Some Thing Mica Sigourney and pals' weekly offbeat drag performance night. Feb 28, a special Oscars parody show. 10pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

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

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

Paula West @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The renowned Bay Area jazz vocalist performs an all-new show with her fourpiece band in a special four-week residency at the elegant nightclub. $35-$50; $20 food/beverage min. Thu 8pm, Fri 7pm & 9:30pm, Sat & Sun 7pm. Thru March 9. Hotel Nikko lobby, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.feinsteinssf.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle The weekly live rock shows have returned. 9pm-ish. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge Retro disco tunes and a fun diverse crowd, each Thursday. $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Fri 28

The Manhattan Transfer

Fedorable @ El Rio Free weekly queer dance party, with gogos, prizes, old groovy tunes, cheap cocktails. 9pm-2am. 3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Go-Beaux @ Beaux Gogo-tastic weekly night at the new Castro club. Bring your dollahs, 'cause they'll make you holla. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun The popular video bar ends each week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. Check out the new expanded front lounge, with a window view. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Hard @ Qbar DJ Haute Toddy spins electro beats; cute gogo guys shake it. $3. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Josh Klipp and The Klipptones @ Palace Hotel The local jazz crooner and his band perform weekly shows at the hotel's lounge, which draws a growing swingdance audience. 7pm-11pm. 2 New Montgomery. www.joshklipp.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland

Fri 28

Feb 28, a special 13th annual Brazilian carnival party with DJ Salvador, live capoeira performers and Brazilian drummers, and hot gogos. Enjoy eight bars, more dance floors, and a smoking lounge at the largest gay Latin dance night in the Bay Area. Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Adam Killian

Veteran DJ Page Hodel (The Box, Q and many other events) presents a new weekly dance event, with soul, funk, hip-hop and house mixes. $10. 21+. 9pm-2am. 314 11th St. at Folsom. www.BeatboxSF.com

The Manhattan Transfer @ Yoshi's Oakland

Magic Parlor @ Chancellor Hotel

Cornelius Washington

Sat 1 Mutha Chucka hosts Sex & Drags & Rock n Roll

Sex & Drags & Rock n Roll @ Midnight Sun Mutha Chucka's monthly rock drag show this time includes Uphoria Glitter, Pristine Condition, Bearonce Growles, Ms Ladybug and more. 10:30 and 12am shows. 4067 18th St. www.midnightsunsf.com

Ships in the Night @ The New Parish, Oakland The radical queer Ships crew's monthly dance party benefits the Bay Area American Indians Two-Spirits group, with drag acts, traditional arts, drumming and dancing. $5. 9pm-2am. 579 18th St., Oakland. (510) 444-7474. www.thenewparish.com

Themed Nights @ The Brig

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences

The large-scale multiple-venue festival presents music acts galore, thru March 2. www.noisepop/2014

Resident disco-licious DJs Sergio Fedasz and Steve Fabus welcome Gio for a birthday tribute, plus Shawn Ryan, Glenn Rivera and vogue performers The A. Free/$7. 9pm-3am. 399 9th St. at Harrison. www.studsf.com

Weekly show with drag queens and the Picante Boys; hosted by Lulu Ramirez; DJ Marco. 9pm-2am. 3079 16th St. 841-5748. www.jceventssf.com

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. 829-2233. www.virgilssf.com

Noise Pop Festival @ Bay Area

GiO Bang! @ The Stud

Picante @ Esta Noche

Nap's Karaoke @ Virgil's Sea Room

Jukebox @ Beatbox

Whimsical Belle Epoque-style sketch and magic show that also includes historical San Francisco stories; hosted by Walt Anthony; optional pre-show light dinner and desserts. $40. Thu-Sat 8pm. 433 Powell St. www.SFMagicParlor.com

Every Friday night, bad girls can get $1 dollar margaritas between 9pm and 10pm. 3464 19th St. between Mission and Valencia. 863-2052. www.lexingtonclub.com

Queer Costume Ball @ Lake Merritt Dance Center, Oakland

The ten-time Grammy-winning jazz vocal group performs at the East Bay nightclub and restaurant. $35-$48. 8pm & 10pm. Also Mar. 1 at 7:30pm and 9:30pm. Mar. 2 at 7pm & 9pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Jack London Square. (510) 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

Sat 1 Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 4214222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

If you're looking for a new sexual adventure, check out this new space. Weekend events take place Saturdays through Mondays, and the intimate venue with a jail theme offers slings, tables and various spaces for erotic play. Sat-Mon, above PopSex960 at 962 Folsom St. at 6th St. www.BrigSF.com

Will Downing @ Yoshi's The "Prince of Sophisticated Soul" performs with his band. $60-$75. 8pm. Also March 2, 7pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Sun 2 Academy of Friends Gala @ Terra Gallery

Beer only $8 until you bust. 4pm-8pm. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

The 24th annual Oscar-viewing party and fundraiser for local AIDS/HIV nonprofits this year takes on an Emerald City theme. Expect many Friends of Dorothy, emerald fashions, flying monkeys and even a good/ bad witch or two as you enjoy drinks, food, desserts, auction items and a festive Academy Awards event. $250 and up. 5pm-11:30pm. 511 Harrison St. 995-9890. www.academyoffriends.org

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland

Academy Night @ Rialto Cinema, Sebastopol

Beer Bust @ Hole in the Wall Saloon

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

Freaky Deaky Speak'n Easy @ Oakland Metro Operahouse Cirquedelic and the B.A.E. Krew present a wild ravey night of DJed tunes (Denise, Baron von Spirit, NeonBunny), aerial silk performers, stilt walkers, burlesque, fire dancers, all in a 1920s Deco speakeasy setting; festive garb encouraged. $10-$25. 8pm-2am. 630 3rd St., Oakland. www.freakydeekyspeakneasy. brownpapertickets.com

Mardi Gras Magick @ Club 180 Krewe de Kinque's annual New Orleansstyled gala includes a VIP hosted open bar, Creole buffet, party favors, silent auction advance previews. Reg. admission includes live entertainment, beads, raffle prizes, drag comedy and music acts (Ethel Merman, Che-a-Little, Xavier Toscano, Ana Mae Cosss, Garza), MCs Chablis and John Weber, plus the crowning of the year's king and queen. $25-$50, $100 and up. 7pm-11pm. The Arc, 180 11th St. www. brownpapertickets.com/event/575161

Food for Thought's annual Oscar night gala fundraiser includes a champagne reception, food from Cottonwood Catering, awards-viewing, and fun with the "Oscar boys." $25-$75. 4:30pm11pm. 6868 McKinley Ave., Sebastopol. (707) 525-4840. www.fftfoodbank.org/ academy-night-sonoma-county

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. 3pm-6pm, with an '80s-themed dance party 7pm-1am. $5. Also now open daily 11am-2am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Cocktailgate @ Truck Suppositori Spelling's wild weekly drag show night. $3. 10pm-2am. 1900 Folsom St. www.trucksf.com

Full of Grace @ Beaux Weekly night with hostess Grace Towers, different local and visiting DJs, and pop-up drag performances. No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

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

t On the Tab>> Jock @ The Lookout

Karaoke @ The Lookout

Red Hots Burlesque @ El Rio

The weekly jock-ular fun continues, with special sports team fundraisers. 3pm-6pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

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

Liquid Brunch @ Beaux

Sports Night @ The Eagle

Women’s burlesque show performs each Wed & Fri. Karaoke follows. $5-$10. 7pm. 3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Repent @ Beatbox The official victory tea dance of SF Leather Alliance Weekend includes a suggested leather/kink/fetish dress code, plus DJ collective Honey Soundsystem. $20. 5pm11pm. 314 11th st. at Folsom. www.repentsf.eventbrite.com www.beatboxsf.com

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

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550

The legendary leather bar gets jock-ular, with beer buckets, games (including beer pong and corn-hole!), prizes, sports on the TVs, and more fun. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Tue 4 13 Licks @ Q Bar Weekly women's night at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Anton Schwartz, Taylor Eigsti @ Yoshi's Oakland CD release party for experimental jazz bandleader and saxophonist Schwartz' Flash Mob, with guest pianist Eigsti. $20. 8pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Jack London Square. (510) 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

The popular country western LGBT dance night; enjoy fun foot-stomping twostepping and line-dancing. $5. 5pm10:30pm with lessons from 5:30-7:15 pm. Also Thursdays. 550 Barneveld Ave., and Tuesdays at Beatbox, $6. 6:30-11pm. 314 11th St. www.sundancesaloon.org

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey's

Sunday's a Drag @ Starlight Room

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

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

Mon 3 Cock and Bull Mondays @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Specials on drinks made with Cock and Bull ginger ale (Jack and Cock, Russian Mule, and more). 8pm-closing. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

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

Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gay-friendly comedy night. One-drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Ink & Metal @ Powerhouse

Moonchild @ Yoshi's

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall The weekly dancing competition for gogo wannabes. 9pm. cash prizes, $2 well drinks (2 for 1 happy hour til 9pm). Show at 9pm. 4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

Trivia Night @ Harvey's BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly night of trivia quizzes and fun and prizes; no cover. 8pm-1pm. 500 Castro St. 431-4278. www.harveyssf.com

Underwear Night @ SF Eagle Strip down to your skivvies at the popular leather bar. 9pm-2am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Way Back @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of vintage music videos and retro drink prices. Check out the new expanded front window lounge. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Thu 6 Ashling Cole @ Yoshi's

The Neo-Soul jazz trio performs. $12-$50 (with dinner). 8pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 6555600. www.yoshis.com

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre San Francisco’s 18+ Sex Club!

Strip down at the strip joint. $20 includes refreshments. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

No No Bingo @ Virgil's Sea Room VivvyAnne ForeverMORE and Tom Temprano's wacky game night. 8pm12am. 2nd & 4th Mondays. 3152 Mission St. www.virgilssf.com

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

Wed 5 Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular new sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Thu 6

Michelle Coltrane

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre Porn performer Max Cameron leads a sexy downstairs event in the strip club's playroom. $10. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops

Michelle Coltrane @ Yoshi's Oakland Enjoy classic and contemproary jazz from the talented singer, who performs music from her new CD. $25. 8pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Jack London Square. (510) 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

Wed 5

So You Think You Can Gogo?

Honey Mahogany's weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm, with a RuPaul's Drag Race viewing as well. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Monday Musicals @ The Edge The casts of local and visiting musicals often pop in to perform at the popular Castro bar's musical theatre night. 7pm2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing. 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

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

Shanté, You Stay @ Toad Hall BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly viewing party of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 6, with a live drag show challenge! 8:30-11:30pm. 4146 18th st. at Castro. www.toadhallbar.com

415-370-7152

www.stevenunderhill.com • stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

The powerhouse vocalist performs a Teena Marie birthday tribtue concert. $19-$57 (with dinner). 8pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

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

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun

weddings • headshots• portraits

STEVENUNDERHILLPHOTOGRAPHY

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

The Monster Show @ The Edge Broadway Bingo @ Feinstein's at the Nikko Joe Wicht and Katya Smirnoff-Skyy cohost the weekly fun musical theatre trivia singalong night. Pull up a comfy chair or sofa, enjoy a cocktail or three, and test your Broadway knowledge. Kanpai Lounge, Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. No cover. 7pm10pm. 394-1111. www.hotelnikkosf.com/ feinsteins.aspx

Miss Kitty's Trivia Night @ Wild Side West The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata. No cover. 7pm-10pm. 424 Cortland St. 6473099. www.wildsidewest.com

Queer Salsa @ Beatbox

Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. Mar. 6 includes DJ Jonas Reinhardt, live mountain lion and bobcats (nothing could go wrong there!). $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

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

Weekly Latin partner dance night. 8pm1am. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com

Underwear Party @ Powerhouse

Rookie's Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

Strip down to your skivvies at the weekly cruisy SoMa bar night. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhouse-sf.com

Watch competitors shake it for a $200 first prize in stripping, or sign up yourself by 8pm. The audience picks the winner. $20 includes refreshments. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Want your nightlife event listed? Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event. Event photos welcome.

Open daily at 12pm

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Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 27-March 5, 2014

Rok Hard

Drew Sumrok on sex, porn and…Thundercats?

DSX3 Media

Drew Sumrok

by Cornelius Washington

/lgbtsf

evilishly sensual porn man Drew Sumrok burned out the lights while burning up the stage recently at the Nob Hill Theater, causing both genders in the joint to give up gasps and greenbacks in appreciation. Between sets, I asked the very sweaty, busy and ambitious assslinger a few questions about what and who he wants to do in 2014. Here’s to one more year of not trying... to resist temptation. Cornelius Washington: I loved your performance and your music choice! I haven’t heard tribal beats like that in a long time. They’re great for nude dancing. May I ask you a few questions? Drew Sumrok: Thanks! Sure, ask me whatever you want to know. In my research, I see that you’ve worked with a wide variety of companies. I’m always curious with porn stars; what do you do onscreen that you don’t do in your private life? I’d do just about anything. I can’t think of anything that I wouldn’t do on film. Cornelius Washington

Well, that leads to another question. What have you done privately that you haven’t yet done on film? Fisting and topping. Here’s hoping that when the porn kings who produce and direct read this, it’ll be on and popping with those two! What is your personal New Year’s resolution? To gain ten pounds on my ass (laughs). That’s a joke. I like my ass just the way it is!

Drew Sumrock at the Nob Hill Theatre.

Professional New Year’s resolution? To direct and produce my own films through my film company DSX3 Films. Love it. Who will appear in your films with whom you’d have sex? Adam Killian! He’ll die laughing when he reads this! We’re friends. He’s gonna die laughing, but he’s the one I want to do a hot sex scene with. It’ll work, too! Several people tonight are way ahead of you. What’s it like performing at the Nob Hill? It was truly an amazing experience. It can put you under a lot of pressure, but it’s a turn-on to me to see the excitement in the faces of the audience as I interact with them. What movie star/cinema stud would you most want to fuck? Hugh Jackman! He’s sexy!

Dick Mitchell

Drew Sumrok

As far as I’m concerned, he’s the top man in Hollywood with the comic book super hero role. In gay culture, being a muscular hot

stud who is into gladiator graphic novels, TV shows, movies and comic books is the new, big thing. So, which comic book hero would you want to be? One of the Thundercats. Which one? Doesn’t matter. Any one of them. Oh, and I’d like to tell your readers that I’m going to be in one of those hot gay male nude coffee table books. It’s going to be called Sneaks. It’s cool. All buff guys wearing sneakers. It’s being published by Bruno Gmunder. You’ve done some bareback videos. Can you comment on that? I make bareback sex because that’s the type of sex I like to have. Last question. What happened to you last year that you don’t want to happen to you in the new year? I don’t want to be stereotyped - period!t Visit Drew’s very Not Safe For Work blog: drewsumrokxxx.com

Read more online at www.ebar.com

February 27-March 5, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Got Woods?

Nob Hill Theatre ADAM KILLIAN FEBRUARY 28 & MARCH 1 th

www.thenobhilltheatre.com ADAM KILLIAN

FEB 28 th & MAR 1 st SHOWTIMES @ 8PM & 10PM

MAX CAMERON

CIRCLE JERK WITH A PORN STAR

Colt Studio Group

Trenton Ducatti will unbutton his long johns if you just wait a sec.

by John F. Karr

he feature-length Muscle Ridge and its companion anthology of solo scenes, Timberline, are a most handsomely made pair of Colt Studio releases. And while all of the performers in each film have been featured elsewhere extensively—in some instances you might say, exhaustively— they’ve rarely been granted such a glamorous look, nor had lavished upon them such a crisp, highdefinition image with burnished color. Assuredly abetted by the polished videography and smooth editing of Max Phillips, and atmospheric music by Sergio Montana, director Kristofer Weston takes us to a dense forest, where his men are cradled within massive tree trunks, and bathed in the warm sunlight that filters through the canopy of branches. In the hush of these groves, Weston establishes a languid mood as the men explore their bodies, while his mellow pacing lets us wallow in their beauty. Then he guides them into the heated couplings with the ultimate impact we expect from a sexo. The casting and pairing of performers for this two-hour feature is uniformly top-notch. Three of the eight men switch partners to make a second appearance, but the first impression that the movie’s a merry-go-round of its men is dispelled by the quality and varying nature of the scenes. Argentine native Adam Champ, now 38 years old and 220 pounds of impressively hard and magnificently

Colt Studio Group

JR Bronson poses for Timberline, without his dildo.

furred muscle, tops Trenton Ducati, and returns to top JR Bronson, who subsequently lays lots of lovin’ on Dolan Wolfe’s nutty brown foreskin before the pair deliver tasty back-and-forth cocksucking and swell fucking, accompanied by lots of sincere-sounding dirty talk. A nifty RC lets us ogle Bronson’s burly torso as he twists and flexes atop Wolfe’s big dick. I’m not sure why Ducati’s wearing long johns in his first scene, since it appears he’s dozing in the hot sun of noon—the shadow of his chair is directly below. But red looks great on him, and he’s got it unbuttoned just past his pecker. And that’s low down. Anyway, Champ has the sweat-shiny dude undressed in a flash. Wolfe and Ducati come together for each one’s second scene, and avidly devour each other’s cocks in an all-oral session. Ducati, who’s been beefing it up at the gym and is immaculately groomed, launches the scene with a beaut of a muscle-pump. What about the mighty fine guys who appear in only one scene? Though both Tate Ryder and Liam Magnuson have recently announced their retirement, neither of their scenes in Muscle Ridge were the ultimate last we’d see from them (these movies were released in the latter part of 2013). Yet these are the scenes where I’d be willing to call it quits. Magnuson takes top honors for his fab coupling with handsome young Brayden Forrester. The setting for this is plush—they’re on

Colt Studio Group

In Colt’s Muscle Ridge, it’s luxury in the woods for Brayden Forrester and Liam Magnuson.

a richly padded leather sofa that’s plopped down in the middle of a field of dark green vines. Compared to his Muscle Ridge cohorts, Forrester’s a relative newcomer; he’s the well-built guy who sometimes keeps his glasses on, and looks all the niftier for it. His cocksucking with Magnuson is so passionate I could have lingered on it longer, but you can’t argue with the beauty of the fuck into which they launch. Especially when Forrester straddles Magnuson’s meat to do some heavy pistoning that has his own cock heartily helicoptering. If Muscle Ridge had been Tate Ryder’s last movie, it would have been a fine valedictory. He looks great, sleek and lithe. The fuck he shares with Tom Wolfe starts slow and serious, with some deep probing action, and stays slow as it gets so punchy it makes both of ‘em cum. Timberline is a welcome companion to Muscle Ridge. Filmed at the same time and in the same place, it lets three of the movie’s stars melt us down further with solo turns. Their scenes are only fifteen minutes long, but are paced well enough, and so smoothly edited (by Marco Gray), that, sufficiently sated, I didn’t feel cheated. Getting roped in by the guy’s momentary eye is a big plus. Although JR Bronson’s date with a dildo could have gone on and on. He’s not one of those guys who accept a bonus salary for stuffing a dildo up his butt and perpetrating some clumsy looking roto-rooter action upon themselves. Nope, Bronson’s a virtuoso. His dildo of choice is a rather large number, which he entertains to good effect in several positions, ultimately cumming with toy planted firmly in tuchas. And although I’ve been a great fan of Trenton Ducati, I’ve been wondering if I’ve been sufficiently exposed to his charms. Not without this scene, I’ll say, which completely refreshed my Ducati devotion. It’s the all-time zenith of the star’s beauty. After mesmerizing muscle worship, Ducati nestles himself into the crook of two massive tree trunks, between which his own solid man-trunk of cock hardly seems diminished. He gives us a tactile and sensual session, finger-fucking his hole lasciviously while stroking, and making some beguiling eye contact. The last solo belongs to Liam Magnuson, shiny in the sun, deliciously sweaty, and altogether fabu. All told, Muscle Ridge and Timberline are suave and sexy, the Cadillac-type ride that’s a Colt trademark.t www.ColtStudioGroup.com

Club Inferno Photo Credit:

FEB 27th @ 9PM - UNDERGROUND PLAYROOM

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10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 27-March 5, 2014

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February 27-March 5, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Shooting Stars photos by Steven Underhill T

he 49th annual Imperial Coronation events enthralled fans of drag pageantry throughout last weekend. The official crowning of new Empress Misty Blue and Emperor Jon Soto took place at the Design Center Galleria on Saturday, March 22. Donna Sachet, our ‘On the Town’ columnist (and also Imperial royalty), reports on the festivities. See page 1 of this section.

See more event photo albums on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf. nightlife and on www.StevenUnderhill.com

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