Janury 19, 2012 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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6

Legal eagles

CA left out of pres. politics?

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Q&A: Artist John Bankston

The

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

Vol. 42 • No. 03 • January 19-25, 2012

Religious leaders cry bigotry

Speier confident of Dems’ chances

by Chuck Colbert

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by Matthew S. Bajko

C

ongresswoman Jackie Speier is confident of Democrats’ chances in this election cycle as they seek to recapture the House and maintain hold of both the Senate and the White House.

During a roundtable discussion with local reporters in her district headquarters this month, the longtime politician and LGBT ally defended President Barack Obama’s record as he seeks a second term amid a continued economic malaise Rick Gerharter and record high Rep. Jackie Speier unemployment.

“I don’t think he is going to lose,” said Speier, 61, whose San Mateo-based district also includes San Francisco’s southern neighborhoods. “I am not saying that because I am a Democrat. I am saying that because I think the Republican primary process has exhausted virtually every candidate.”

The bruising fight among Republican candidates for the GOP nomination has bolstered her optimistic view of her party’s chances. Frontrunner Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, while so far winning the early primary and caucus contests, has done so without clear majorities, noted Speier.

“The fact Mitt Romney still can’t seem to garner a majority of support suggests really lukewarm support” for his candidacy, she said.

She also indicated that she is not apprehensive about the prospect of having Obama attacking Congress over the next 10 months on the campaign trail.

“I think the president has made it clear what he is doing; he is running against Congress.

He is running against a GOP that has made it their business to make sure the economy stays in this malaise,” she said. “We’ll point to his successes, and he has plenty.”

Among Obama’s legislative victories that Speier listed was the repeal of the anti-gay military policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which prevented gay and lesbian service members from being open about their sexual orientation. She also suggested that the much-maligned affordable health care See page 6 >>

Rick Gerharter

Inspired by King S

tanding in front of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, the Reverend Fred Mayberry of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Oakland spoke to over a hundred activists who picketed the bank as part of a nationwide action highlighting income inequality and economic injustice. The January 16 event was inspired by

the ideas and actions of Martin Luther King Jr., reflecting his “I Have a Dream” speech given at the national March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Spearheaded by African American clergy, similar actions were held at 16 locations of the Federal Reserve Bank in the U.S., marking the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

group of nearly 40 conservative religious leaders released an open letter last week that seeks to reframe the battle over samesex civil marriage as a threat to their freedom of religion.

And in a new tactical twist, the signatories say their concern is not that their ministers will be forced to preside at same-sex weddings. Rather, they Archbishop say, allowing gays to Timothy M. Dolan wed would end up “forcing or pressuring both individuals and religious organizations – throughout their operations, well beyond religious ceremonies – to treat same-sex sexual conduct as the moral equivalence of marital sexual conduct.”

The signatories include New York See page 9 >>

AOF looks to reboot Oscar gala

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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fter two years of turmoil, the Academy of Friends is hoping to reboot its signature Oscar gala so that it can once again distribute proceeds to HIV/AIDS nonprofits.

This year’s theme is “Scandalous,” which might have applied to the organization’s last two events. In both 2010 and 2011 the benefitting organizations (they were the same except for one that chose not to participate last year) received only a fraction of the money they were expecting.

This year, however, a new board chair is at the helm and he’s getting the word out that the gala, while scaled down and leaner, is on.

In fact, Howard Edelman, the board chair, is encouraging people to say “Scandalous.”

“It’s so much fun to say, so I suggest everyone go around San Francisco saying, ‘Scandalous,’ because the publicity would be awesome,” Edelman said in an email.

Tickets, which are $250 general admission, are now on sale. This year’s gala and Academy Awards viewing party begins at 5 p.m., Sunday, February 26, and will be held at the San Francisco Design Center Galleria, 101 Henry Adams Street.

After a disappointing past two galas, Edelman, who stepped in as board chair last June, is looking to revitalize the party, long known for its sexy human Oscar statuettes. He

Rick Gerharter

Guests entered the Academy of Friends annual gala more than a decade ago, in 2000.

This year the organization hopes to reboot the party.

told the Bay Area Reporter Tuesday, January 17 that AOF received confirmation that AT&T will be a major sponsor ($25,000 and above) for next month’s event. Other confirmed corporate sponsors who will provide financial donations include Gold’s Gym, gaytravelbuddy.com, American Packaging, and betterbusinesscards.com. (Edelman works

{ FIRST OF TWO SECTIONS }

at American Packaging.)

“Corporate sponsorship continues to be an important component of bringing the gala to life each year, along with underwriting support,” he noted.

Those contributions will help pay for the party, while funds from ticket sales, the See page 9 >>

<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 19-25, 2012

▼

Rick Gerharter

Power of One awards P

aul Henderson, left, received the Political Advocate Award of the Sylvester Honors during the Power of One event, Monday, January 16 at Trigger in the Castro. The annual inspirational evening commemorated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on his birthday. Event organizers John Weber, Donald Cooper and Terry Dyer shared the stage. Activities throughout the night included a poetry slam, various performers, and dancing to the

spins of DJ Bus Station John. The event raised $350 for Hands on Bay Area and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Our Love program. Other awardees included Brett Andrews, executive director of Positive Resource Center, who received the Impact Award; Police Commissioner Julius Turman, who received the Service Award; and event producer Joe Hawkins, who received the Individual Achievement Award.

SJ woman faces murder charge

by Seth Hemmelgarn

of domestic violence” toward her.

Attorneys Michael Cardoza and Leon Mezzetti, who have made a general appearance in court for Sadiq but aren’t her attorneys of record, according to Fehderau, weren’t available for comment.

A

San Jose woman is facing a murder charge in the death of her wife’s mother.

Sagal Mohamod Sadiq, 40, has pleaded not guilty to killing Yvonne Marie Kirk, 65, with a machete.

The prosecutor in the case said that Kirk was the mother of Sadiq’s wife, Minema Kirk, 36, who was trying to end her relationship with Sadiq.

Sadiq’s next court hearing is today (Thursday, January 19) for identification of counsel.

According to San Jose Police Department statements, police received a 911 call at about 11 p.m. on December 30, and found two women suffering from an “apparent physical attack” at Sadiq and Minema Kirk’s home, 1994 Johnston Avenue.

Yvonne Kirk was pronounced dead at the scene. An ambulance took Sadiq to a hospital, where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released, police said.

At first, police said the investigation of the incident “revealed that an unknown subject attacked the victims inside the residence using an edged weapon.”

Investigators recovered the machete at the scene, but initially, no suspect was found.

Sadiq was arrested in connection with the crime the next day, December 31. She was arraigned January 5 on a charge of murder and an allegation of using a dangerous

‘Mellow neighborhood’

Courtesy SJ Police Department

Sagal Mohamod Sadiq

and deadly weapon. She pleaded not guilty and is currently in custody without bail at Santa Clara County’s main jail in San Jose.

In an interview, Santa Clara County Assistant District Attorney Dan Fehderau said Minema Kirk was on vacation at the time her mother was killed. Through a friend, she declined to comment for this story. Fehderau said Kirk “is trying hard to cope with this tragedy in her life.” (Details of the couple’s relationship were first published in the San Jose Mercury News.)

Fehderau said he didn’t know how long Sadiq and Kirk had been married, but he said they wed during the brief period same-sex marriages were legal in California. Citing information from police, Fehderau said Minema Kirk had reported that Sadiq had directed “prior incidents

Outside the small white house Sadiq and Kirk shared recently, flowers had been placed on the porch. A neighbor said that Kirk’s family had had a yard sale earlier in the day, and leftover books and other items sat behind a sign that said, “All Free.”

All the lights in the house were off, and there was no answer to the doorbell.

Most neighbors declined to comment about the killing.

Keri Kingsborough, who lives across the street from Sadiq and Kirk’s house, said it’s “a very mellow neighborhood.” She said she knows most of her neighbors, but she hadn’t seen the other women before she saw Sadiq the night of the incident.

Kingsborough said she saw Sadiq lying on the lawn as police talked to her, then shouting as she was being wheeled into an ambulance. She didn’t know what the other woman had been yelling.

Police had come to her door the night of the murder and asked if she’d seen a masked man in the area, Kingsborough said. When they came back later the same night, she said, “They indicated there were other things going on.”▼

Early Black History Month program compiled by Cynthia Laird

T

he San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park will host a free, two-day program next week that looks at African Americans during the California Spanish era and Civil War. Entitled, “Come to the Water: Teaching San Francisco Black History, A Discussion for Black History Month,” the programs will focus on local African Americans who played a little-known, but significant role, in the events leading up to and including he Civil War. The first day of the program is Monday, January 23, where the

Maritime Museum hosts the program focusing on local blacks during the California Spanish era. The presentation begins at 2 p.m. and is for all ages. The museum is located in the Aquatic Park Bathhouse Building, at the corner of Beach and Polk streets.

The second program takes place Tuesday, January 24 at the historic sailing ship Balclutha (located at the Hyde Street Pier, enter at Hyde and Jefferson streets), which will host the program focusing on local blacks during the Civil War. It also starts at 2 p.m. and is for all ages.

Leading the discussion will be historian John William Templeton,

author of Come to the Water: Sharing the Rich Black Experience in San Francisco, a new textbook designed for education and reference use; and park Ranger Guy Washington, the National Park Service’s west region coordinator of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

At the Monday program, museum visitors will also have the opportunity to view the recently renovated Aquatic Park Bathhouse Building, which has several features relevant to the city’s African American heritage.

The Tuesday program aboard the Balclutha will include a ranger-led chantey program focusing on African American contributions to sea music.

For more information, call (415) See page 9 >>

Politics >>

▼ Legal groups welcome lesbian leaders

January 19-25, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

by Matthew S. Bajko Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check www.ebar.com Monday mornings around 11 a.m. for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. The column returns Monday January 23.

I

n what is believed to be a first, two Bay Area professional law associations have lesbian presidents at the helm this year.

Kelly M. Dermody, 44, an attorney and partner at Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann and Bernstein LLP, was installed as president of the Bar Association of San Francisco during the group’s annual membership luncheon December 15. Dermody is the fourth out lesbian to hold the position; the first was in 1999 when attorney Therese Stewart, now San Francisco’s chief deputy city attorney, served as president.

The Alameda County Bar Association welcomed Sally Elkington, 63, who has her own law office in downtown Oakland, as its new president during an installation dinner last Thursday, January 12.

Elkington is the first out lawyer to lead the board of the East Bay legal group.

“I guess when I think about it, I just think it makes gay and lesbian leadership in bar associations a nonissue the more you have out leaders.

And having two at once is just a wonderful example of how far we’ve come in our legal communities,” said Chris Burdick, 56, an out lesbian who for 22 years has been the Santa Clara County Bar Association’s executive director and general counsel.

In many parts of the country, and even other parts of California, LGBT lawyers are not comfortable with being out of the closet, Elkington and Dermody told the Bay Area Reporter.

Both hope to use the spotlight that comes with being a bar association president to break down stereotypes and inspire others.

“Having a number of LGBT bar leaders in the same area at the same time provides a unique opportunity to demonstrate to those parts of the country and those parts of the state that we as LGBT professionals are capable and as capable of leading as anyone else in this diverse collection of lawyers and professionals in our community,” said Dermody, who thanked her partner, Billie Mizell, in her installation speech. “You get startled if you have lived in the Bay Area as an LGBT professional at how hard it is for people not in the Bay Area to make a living. When you have a chance to have this platform, which we don’t have every day, it is sure nice to use it for the sake of the community and the benefit of everyone.”

Bar associations should be promoting diversity in the legal profession, said Elkington, who also thanked her partner, Linda Heidinger, during her remarks.

“I think to have a visible LGBT person or people in your bar association speaks to the members of the bar about the fact that there are LGBT attorneys out there, there are LGBT clients out there, and we need to make sure we have that kind of leadership in our legal community.

Both from an attorney standpoint and also in our judiciary,” she said.

In addition to advocating for more funding for the state court system, Dermody has made diversity one of her three top agenda items as president – the third being community service.

In her speech she spoke of the need of law firms to hire more people of color and LGBTs. “Our profession wields enormous influence in this society. But this influence is illegitimate if it is not inclusive of and does not empower the rich diversity of our community,” she said.

Elkington, a former board chair of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, has adopted similar priorities

Courtesy Kelly Dermody

Jane Philomen Cleland

Kelly Dermody is the new president of the Bar Association of San Francisco

Sally Elkington is the new president of the Alameda County Bar Association

for her year as president. In her speech she pledged to see her bar association be a voice for equal rights for all people.

“When it will be easier to step back on issues that are controversial and difficult, we will step forward and engage in meaningful discussion and action through our leadership in promoting the civil rights of all people,” she said.

Having out leadership at the bar may make it more comfortable for LGBT judges to be out, said Elkington. She noted there are several LGBT judges in Alameda County who are not open about their sexual orientation because their sense is that would not be okay. County voters elected out lesbian transgender Judge Victoria Kolakowski in 2010, and retired Judge Hugh Walker came out in a legal paper last year.

“I don’t know we have actually reached that point yet where people feel comfortable coming out,” said Elkington, who with Burdick served as advisory members on a committee that issued a first-of-its-kind report in 2001 examining LGBT fairness within California’s court system.

The high profile positions, say LGBT lawyers, not only show that being out of the closet does not impair LGBT attorneys’ careers, at least in the Bay Area, but also signals how diversified the local legal establishment is to the general public and LGBT community.

“I think it provides a really good role model and also shows the legal profession is diversified. That enhances people’s confidences in the legal profession and court system,” said Burdick, noting that the South Bay legal group elected its first lesbian president, Julie Emede, in 2005.

At far too many law firms in the country diversity is not celebrated, said Burdick, due to the fact their partners are conservative, as are many of their clients.

“They are concerned about what it does to business or what they perceive it does. Then I think a number of attorneys are still just not comfortable working with diversity,” she said. “I think that holds true not just for gay and lesbian attorneys but is an issue with minority attorneys, unfortunately.”

The two bar presidents can serve as role models for young people, particularly LGBT youth interested in entering the legal profession, said David Tsai, a gay lawyer with the San Francisco firm Perkins Coie LLP who just stepped down from serving on the local bar’s board and is co-chair of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, a group for LGBT lawyers.

“It is especially important for youth to see that you can be anything, even if you are LGBT,” said Tsai, who noted that Dermody took part in an It Gets Better video that BALIF

put together. “Every president of the bar is significant, that is why it is so important once every few years we have a minority or LGBT person. It provides a lot of inspiration to youth especially.”

Being a bar president can also be beneficial on an attorney’s resume.

Emede, for instance, was appointed to the Santa Clara Superior Court in 2009 by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The former governor also named Angela Bradstreet, an out lesbian who was president of the San Francisco bar, to a seat on the San Francisco Superior Court.

“Certainly, BASF presidents have gone on to many great things,” said Tsai, noting that the current U.S. Ambassador to Australia, Jeffrey Bleich, a straight attorney, served in the position in 2003. “That is not to say that being the president of the bar association in San Francisco means you will become a judge. But it does qualify candidates to become judges.”▼

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<< Open Forum

▼ Redistricting proposal must change

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 19-25, 2012

Volume 42, Number 03 January 19-25, 2011 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Thomas E. Horn 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 • Scott Brogan Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • David Duran Raymond Flournoy • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell John F. Karr • Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy David Lamble • Michael K. Lavers Michael McDonagh • Paul Parish Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Bob Roehr • Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Ed Walsh • Sura Wood

ART DIRECTION Kurt Thomas PRODUCTION MANAGER T. Scott King PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland Marc Geller Rick Gerharter Lydia Gonzales Rudy K. Lawidjaja Steven Underhill Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge Christine Smith

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S

an Francisco is in the process of redistricting its 11 supervisorial districts and the current draft map is disappointing, especially the proposal for District 8, which includes the Castro. It is likely that the draft map will be changed, and so we urge the San Francisco Redistricting Task Force to reconsider the boundaries of District 8 in the final version.

Following the 2010 census, the director of elections determined that the existing supervisorial districts no longer meet the legal requirements established by federal, state, and local law.

The decision to form a task force was made in accordance with the city charter. The members are charged with redrawing the supervisorial district lines by gathering input from public meetings and working with outside consultants. These meetings will continue for the next couple months, and the crucial time for comment is now, before the maps are finalized in April.

Much like the state redistricting that occurred last year, the city’s task force is directed to look at several factors when redrawing the lines. These include ensuring equal populations in the districts, adherence to the federal Voting Rights Act, and compliance with the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The task force must also consider communities of interest – and that’s why we are troubled by the current draft map.

The proposed redrawn District 8 would cut out a large swath of LGBT and progressive voters. The new district would lose voters on the eastern side (Valencia and Dolores streets) and the northern part (near the Haight boundary). District 8 would no longer include the LGBT Community Center and the proposed senior housing at 55 Laguna Street.

However, District 8 would likely pick up more moderate voters on the west side, extending

down to 7th Avenue.

District 8 as we know it would be significantly different – more moderate and less gay. Since its creation when voters reverted to district elections in 2000, District 8 has been regarded as an LGBT district, although slightly more moderate than Districts 5 (Haight) and 9 (Mission). Still, though, it has a decidedly progressive flavor. In the 2010 election, moderate Scott Wiener won the race over strong competition from progressive attorney Rafael Mandelman.

That competitive spirit should remain.

LGBT residents in District 8 comprise a community of interest that should be maintained. While it is true that every supervisorial district in San Francisco has

LGBT voters, the unique makeup of District 8 and its history as the gay district should be respected. There is power in numbers and without a gay-centered district it is possible that a future Board of Supervisors would not include an out LGBT person. We are fortunate that the board today has three out members – two gay men and a bisexual woman – and that two of them are people of color. But we have learned the hard way not to take this representation for granted: since 2000, the board has not had an out lesbian and an out trans person has never been elected.

The task force is meeting Saturday, January 21 at 10 a.m. at the Bayanihan Center, 1010 Mission Street. One of the items on the agenda is discussion and a possible vote on the draft map. Concerned community members should attend this meeting and urge the task force to rethink its proposal for District 8 boundaries.▼

SF Democratic Party must stay democratic

by Arlo Hale Smith, Debra Walker, and Keith Baraka

among Democratic committee members to win passage – or ensure successful legislative enactment in Sacramento.

L

Two proposals

ittle noticed amid the current once-perdecade state and federal redistricting process is a reapportionment question involving San Francisco’s local Democratic Party, which could result in significant underrepresentation for the city’s eastern side – a bastion of diversity that has traditionally been key to the political empowerment of the LGBT community and other minority groups.

At issue is the apportionment of members on the Democratic County Central Committee, or DCCC, the elected governing body of a local political party that is among the most vibrant and influential in California.

Under state law as it has existed for the last decade, San Francisco allocates representation on its Democratic Party committee evenly between the city’s two Assembly districts, with 12 members from each. But with state legislative redistricting all but finalized, San Francisco’s Assembly districts are set to change.

The newly redrawn eastern district (the 17th Assembly District, represented by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano) will now encompass a larger share of San Francisco, and account for about 61 percent of the city’s over 260,000 registered Democratic voters.

Meanwhile, the city’s western district (the 19th Assembly District, represented by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma) will include fewer San Francisco precincts together with part of San Mateo County. It will account for about 39 percent of San Francisco’s registered Democrats.

Just like state and federal legislative districts, party committees, too, undertake a process of reallocating their representation every 10 years – and it should be completed by the June primary election. That has left only a small window in which to act. Fortunately, both of San Francisco’s LGBT state legislators – state Senator Mark Leno and Ammiano – have agreed to support legislation that will ensure proportional representation on the city’s DCCC. Still, no reapportionment recommendation has yet to secure the necessary consensus

So far, two proposals have emerged to address the proportional inequity. One would preserve the DCCC’s current membership total of 24, but designate that there be 10 representatives from the western Assembly District and 14 from the eastern Assembly District. Another proposal would expand total membership on the committee to 29, with five additional members added to represent the more heavily Democratic 17th Assembly District. Either proposal will achieve proportional representation between the new districts.

But without decisive action in reaching a consensus proposal, San Francisco’s Democratic Party could maintain a 50-50 apportionment split that is both fundamentally unfair and that further disenfranchises already underrepresented minority communities in the city’s eastern neighborhoods. Indeed, underrepresentation among minority communities is already a concern on the DCCC, which doesn’t currently include a single elected African American member.

Now is the time for the DCCC to decisively support one of these proposals or face a decidedly unappealing political scenario.

Given that Republicans offer proportional representation on their elective party committee based on party registration, the local Republican Party could end up being more democratic than the Democratic Party – and that’s an embarrassment Democrats should want to avoid.

If all this seems like an inconsequential political squabble, think again.

Apart from delivering the most coveted and influential endorsements in local politics, the Democratic County Central Committee has historically been an important farm team for emerging political leaders – especially leaders who represent minority communities.

Both out gay supervisors, David Campos and Scott Wiener, began their careers by first winning election to the DCCC. And strong straight allies of the LGBT community like City Attorney Dennis Herrera (a Latino) and Board of Supervisors President David Chiu (a Chinese American) both cut their teeth in local politics as DCCC members.

San Francisco’s Democratic Party organization also plays an enormously important role in statewide politics. In partnership with organized labor and a handful of other vibrant local Democratic parties statewide, its ability to deliver a strongly progressive turnout among Democratic voters citywide can offset the influence of more heavily Republican counties elsewhere. That can mean the margin of victory for proLGBT and progressive candidates – as it did in then-District Attorney Kamala Harris’s successful 2010 bid for California attorney general.

Indeed, high Democratic turnout in San Francisco is typically an essential component of statewide coalitions to pass progressive statewide ballot measures – and to defeat those intended to hurt consumers or the environment.

Our local Democratic Party committee should aspire to expand on its roles of encouraging tomorrow’s LGBT and minority community leaders, while continuing to demonstrate progressive leadership statewide. It’s hard to imagine how that can be accomplished, however, if our city’s most diverse neighborhoods are systematically underrepresented on the local party committee.

It’s critical that our local Democratic Party be democratic. That’s why San Francisco’s DCCC must reach consensus on a proposal to assure proportional representation to all San Francisco Democrats, and why state legislators must work to enact it.▼ Arlo Hale Smith is an elected member of the DCCC from the 12th Assembly District; Debra Walker is an elected member of the DCCC from the 13th Assembly District; and Keith Baraka was a candidate for DCCC in 2010.

▼

Letters >>

January 19-25, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Gay seniors and bathhouses

EQCA awards gala

As a gay male septuagenarian and “second generation” San Francisco queer (i.e., one who became active in the community in the 1960s and 1970s as opposed to those who settled here in the 1940s and 1950s as a consequence of World War II, the “first generation”), I welcome the hearings that Supervisors David Campos, Scott Wiener, and Christina Olague anticipate with respect to the circumstances of aging LGBTs [“It’s about time (to focus on LGBT seniors,)” Guest Opinion, January 12].

Such hearings might also serve to inform the newer leadership of how rich gay life – if not LBT as well – was prior to the HIV/AIDS pandemic that brought on our now more conservative and assimilationist politics.

One thing this supervisorial threesome could do for aging gay and bisexual men right now – and without further hearings – is to make clear the right of gay bathhouses to operate again in San Francisco. Although over a decade ago the efforts of Community for Sexual Privacy were largely successful in obtaining endorsement for ending the ban on privacy in sex clubs – the ban that keeps traditional gay bathhouses closed – then-Health Director Dr. Mitch Katz quashed any reopening by rejecting the vote of the HIV Prevention Planning Council to end the privacy ban. However, since Katz’s departure to Los Angeles last year has made him history, it might be possible to make his own history of having perpetuated the scapegoating of bathhouses history, too.

It is absurd that 21 years after the court order that banned privacy in gay bathhouses has expired, aging gay men, or any of San Francisco’s gay or bisexual men for that matter, should have to travel to Berkeley or San Jose to visit a bathhouse. In the absence of any initiative to end the ban, I hope a fourth generation of gay and bisexual gay men make bathhouse reopening a priority. Why not start with these hearings?

I was completely stunned by the article about the budget for Equality California’s awards ceremony being $119,000 [“EQCA to discuss plans at Jan. event,” January 5]. Does that seem excessive? I’d have to say someone is a little overboard. It must be really something for that much money.

I supported the group and gave money but I will not give anymore. No wonder our fundraisers for our rights group are going down the drain.

Reid Condit San Francisco

Larry E. Fisher San Francisco

Clarifying remarks I am writing to clarify my remarks to reporter Matthew Bajko, who misinterpreted my remarks at the swearingin ceremony of District 5 Supervisor Christina Olague [“City gains first bi supervisor,” Political Notebook, January 12]. I am not disparaging Bajko’s fine reporting, and it is easy to understand that he got the tone wrong given the political climate in San Francisco and given that it was a hurried conversation at a crowded event.

Christina is my friend of 15 years, and our friendship is not just a “political” friendship.

It is based in common cause and a genuine affection for her. I believe that another reporter got a more accurate picture of my perspective when she wrote that I was thrilled by the choice by Mayor Ed Lee, and I am “ditching” my plans to run for District 5 supervisor unless Invasion of the Body Snatchers happens, and my old friend Christina becomes someone she is not.

My reference to the fact that life is long was meant to suggest that one never knows what will happen in politics and I am not ruling out someday running for supervisor.

My most sincere congratulations to District 5 Supervisor Olague.

Three issues confront LGBT seniors Kudos to Supervisors David Campos, Scott Wiener and Christina Olague for co-sponsoring a hearing about the issues affecting LGBT seniors. Openhouse has been raising and addressing these issues since its founding in 1998. We have made great progress but much more needs to be done.

At least three major issues confront us. First, it is critical that we organize our community to be far better represented in the lotteries and wait lists that determine who will gain access to incredibly scarce affordable senior housing in San Francisco. With the elimination of redevelopment agencies and deep cuts in affordable housing at the federal level, Openhouse’s development of our affordable senior housing community at 55 Laguna Street must be prioritized for city funding in this and future budget years. The construction of 110 units of affordable housing, welcoming to LGBT seniors, hangs in the balance.

Second, we must ensure that LGBT seniors have access to community-based services that support health, independence, civic engagement and quality of life. The Openhouse LGBT Community Services program has provided this kind of support to over 500 LGBT seniors in the last year. But our city contract to deliver these services covers only half the cost and is subject to yearly cuts as the city struggles with ever diminishing resources.

Finally, we must work with our allied leaders and organizations across the continuum of care to ensure access for LGBT seniors who remain fearful of discrimination, misunderstanding, and compromised care. The Openhouse cultural competency training program – a product of years of collaborative work with LGBT aging organizations in the Bay Area – has made a significant impact over the years but the need far outstrips our capacity to deliver this critical training.

In these very challenging economic times, it is timely and appropriate to focus on the needs of this particularly vulnerable population and how we can work together to reduce isolation and continue to empower LGBT seniors to improve their overall health, well being, and economic security.

Seth Kilbourn, Executive Director Openhouse San Francisco

Gabriel Haaland San Francisco

About that porn review I was just about to dismiss John F. Karr’s review of Incubus as just another of his “wish I was making the porn rather than reviewing it” diatribes and file it away with his other forgettable columns, but then he started getting facts wrong [“Horny devils,” Karrnal Knowledge, January 12]. It’s also clear that he was predisposed to dislike the movie based solely on its, admittedly unfortunate, cover art.

In my opinion, worth about as much as Karr’s, Incubus is one of the most beautifully shot, expertly edited porn films to come from Titan in a long time, perhaps since as long ago as Gorge (which I just went back and checked: three videographers, two editors. So, I guess that puts the lie to Karr’s supposition about consistency). Karr’s comparison of Incubus to the lamentable LA Zombie is superficial at best. He’d do better to watch a few Lady Gaga videos, and then write a dissertation.

And then there are the factual errors. Spencer Reed does not appear in the film after the first scene with Francois Sagat and Shay Michaels. The person on the “closed circuit monitor” is Sagat. Also, Karr points out that the horned Sagat from the cover does not appear in the film. But he does, at the end, just after the Hunter Marx character is killed. I can only assume that Karr was reaching for his cum towel at that moment and missed it.

That Karr felt it necessary to write “Huh?” twice in the course of his review only reveals two things: a) He obviously just wasn’t paying much attention, and b) he needs a thesaurus. He also keeps referring to the movie’s press notes, which leads me to believe he did more reading than watching.

If Karr would rather his porn to be simply two-three guys in a room, for no particular reason except to have sex, then I humbly point him to Titan’s own Rough series.

Or if he feels like slumming, in quality of production and models, there’s always Treasure Island.

Dave Yando Alameda, California

More of the same All I can say about Matthew Bajko’s article concerning Mayor Ed Lee [“Lee readies for full term,” January 5] is, who cares? Lee is in the pockets of the 1 percent of San Francisco, and don’t forget who they are: Dianne Feinstein, Richard Blum, Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom, and all the rest of the powerful Democratic machine. No progressives in this bunch. Just four more years of the same.

Daishin Sunseri San Francisco

Send letters to the Bay Area Reporter, 395 Ninth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. Letters must be signed, and include an address and daytime phone number for verification purposes only. Unsigned or anonymous letters will not be published. E-mail letters are accepted at news@ebar.com. Please put “letter to the editor” in the subject line, and also include an address and phone number. Letters may be edited for space.

<< Election 2012

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 19-25, 2012

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alifornia may turn out to be the forgotten state in this year’s presidential campaign.

A combination of factors points to the likelihood that the Golden State will largely be ignored other than as a source of campaign cash and volunteers who can travel to other parts of the country to campaign for their preferred candidate.

For one thing, California is decidedly a blue state, and thus, sees more attention when there is a Democratic primary battle. At this point in the presidential election cycle four years ago, the Bay Area had been ground zero for nearly a year as Democratic candidates courted the region looking for both monetary contributions and support among voters.

In 2008, looking to play a larger role in determining both parties’ candidate, California scheduled its primary for February 5 along with 21 other states. This time around state leaders pushed back the presidential primary to June in order to save money.

The decision means that by the time the state’s GOP voters weigh in on whom their party’s challenger to President Barack Obama will be, the Republican race will likely have already been settled. Most analysts expect that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will have secured his party’s nomination long before June.

The dearth of attention is already being felt by Bay Area LGBTs. Despite the fact the general election is now 10 months away, there has been little outreach to gay voters by either of the major candidates.

“I have no idea what they have done in outreach to LGBTs in general,” said Bentrish Satarzadeh, the immediate past female cochair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club in San Francisco.

“I hate to say it, but they are taking the gay vote for granted.”

But Satarzadeh, who helped raise money for Obama back in 2008, said that is to be expected in a liberal area like the Bay Area.

“They have bigger fish to fry in the Midwest. California’s vote is usually taken for granted in the presidential race,” she said.

Rebecca Prozan, who was Alice’s female co-chair during the last presidential campaign, also served as co-chair of Obama’s Northern California LGBT outreach, which was up and running by 2007. This time around she has yet to be contacted by Obama’s re-election campaign, though Prozan added that

<< ebar.com

Speier From page 1

act that Obama championed is no longer as potent of an attack against the president as some may have

Official White House Photo/Pete Souza

President Barack Obama has strong LGBT support going into his reelection campaign because of actions such as signing the certification for repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” last year.

doesn’t surprise her.

“I’ve not yet been asked but would love to do it,” she said. “I think it is different when running for reelection than the first time out. I think they will be ready to rock and roll when the time is right.”

Even on the GOP side, where throughout 2011 Republicans were slow to coalesce around one candidate, few of the campaigns courted the Bay Area, said Dan Brown, president of the Log Cabin Republicans’ San Francisco chapter.

The two that did, who happened to have the more pro-gay stances, are no longer in the primary race.

Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who had served as Obama’s ambassador to China, dropped out this week. And former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is now running as a Libertarian. The other Republican contenders have paid little attention to California, said Brown.

“They are too focused on the earlier primary states,” said Brown, adding that California’s later primary date is “good from a financial perspective but we are not going to have a lot of influence on who the candidate will be. If it is close by the time June comes around, California will be really important.”

While there may be little public presence so far, the Bay Area isn’t being completely ignored. In recent weeks Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee, has reached out to Obama supporters in the area. The group held a phone bank in San Francisco Sunday, January 8 where volunteers called Democratic voters in Nevada to urge them to participate in their state’s caucuses this month.

The official Obama re-election campaign is also working on an LGBT voter outreach plan it intends

to unveil this spring, said Clo Ewing, the Obama For America spokeswoman assigned to handle LGBT media.

“Across the board, really, we are very much in the building and organizational phase right now,” Ewing, a former producer of the Oprah show who said she is a straight ally of the LGBT community, told the Bay Area Reporter. “What is happening now is a lot of planning.”

Ewing said the campaign, which is headquartered in Chicago, has hired two staff members to develop an LGBT outreach plan. It will be rolled out within a couple months, she said.

The campaign may not be on the ground in California just yet, said Ewing, but “that doesn’t mean it is not going to happen.”

One person who will be helping with the local effort to reach LGBT voters is Los Altos resident Kathy Levinson, who is on Obama’s LGBT National Finance Committee.

Levinson told the B.A.R. she has been assisting with outreach efforts throughout Northern California in order to raise money from LGBT donors.

“I am committed to seeing President Obama re-elected because of what he has done on behalf of the LGBT community thus far and because I believe that under a second Obama term, we will continue to move forward,” wrote Levinson in an email, adding that she didn’t have any information about LGBT specific fundraising events at this time.

The slow pace of the national campaign to reach LGBT voters doesn’t faze Martha Knutzen, the Alice Club’s new female co-chair.

“We don’t have to wait for them. It is almost as though they know that,” she said. “We will be starting our operation on our own.”▼

expected it would be.

“A great country needs inspiring leadership, not leadership trying to tear the country down. I think everyone would agree he has been trying to build,” said Speier. “If you look at the things we have done like the Affordable Care Act, as more and more people recognize the benefits, you see the disappointment and passion in that has declined dramatically.”

A former state lawmaker, Speier

won a special election in 2008 for her congressional seat following the death of longtime Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos. She then went on to easily win re-election to two full two-year terms.

Changed district Due to the decennial redistricting process, this year she finds herself running for a district that includes See page 9 >>

▼

International News >>

January 19-25, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Sterilization tarnishes Sweden’s human rights record

by Heather Cassell

S

weden’s Parliament is planning on retaining the country’s legal sterilization of transgender individuals who undergo gender reassignment surgery while at the same time the courts are pontificating upon a case about the sterilization clause.

The news was leaked from an unknown source January 12 and spread like a wildfire around the globe, angering Swedish and international LGBT and human rights activists.

A government agreement hasn’t been made, but some sort of understanding between the government parties has occurred, Ulrika Westerlund, president of Riksforbundet for homosexuellas, bisexuellas och transpersoners rattigheter, the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, told the Bay Area Reporter in a phone interview.

Removing the state-mandated sterilization law for transgender individuals “has been a top priority for the LGBT movement,” said Westerlund, who added that the refusal to remove the clause threatens Sweden’s position as a global human rights leader.

LGBT Swedes have been waiting for an answer from the courts and parliament since last spring, but a decision in the court case continues to be delayed, said Westerlund.

Sterilization of transgender individuals who undergo gender reassignment surgery has been the law since 1972, when the country set a precedent by legally addressing gender identity.

The clause, Lagen om faststallelse av konstillhorighet i vissa fall (SFS 1972; 119), requires individuals who undergo gender reassignment surgery to be at least 18 years of age, unmarried, and to undergo additional sterilization surgery.

Courtesy RFSL

Ulrika Westerlund

Forty years later the law has become outdated, due to not being revised to reflect current human rights policies related to gender identity.

Swedish LGBT citizens now anticipate a decision from the courts and parliament about the fate of the sterilization law before summer, said Westerlund. The Riksdag vote would probably take effect January 1, 2013, said Maria Sundin, a board member of RFSL and secretary of Transgender Europe, in an email to the B.A.R. The two-prong legal-political strategy employed by many other countries isn’t typical of how political gains are won in Sweden.

The strategy is causing political confusion as changes usually come from political pressure on parliament, not from the courts, said Westerlund.

A majority of the country’s four-party parliament supports removing the clause, but the minority conservative party, the Christian Democrats, stalled the discussion by requesting another report examining the issue before bringing it up for debate in the parliament, according to

media reports January 12.

Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare completed a report advising removal of the clause and revising the law governing gender recognition in 2010. The board presented its report to parliament in May 2011.

Westerlund accused the Christian Democrats of being afraid of men having babies, like Thomas Beatie, a transgender American man who has borne three children with his wife.

“The Christian Democrats have a very hard time accepting the fact that men can give birth to children.

They don’t want to see anyone like Thomas Beatie. ... they want the world made up of women and men and nothing in between: no strange crossovers,” said Westerlund, a 39-year-old queer woman who has a gender non-conforming partner.

She declined to provide more information about her partner.

A spokeswoman for the Riksdag wasn’t able to respond to media requests for comment.

“We are not able to answer your request totally since it still is a matter of discussions between the political parties,” wrote spokeswoman Maud Gehrman in a January 13 email.

Trans rights, human rights The law has caused undue hardships and painful decisions for transgender individuals in Sweden, activists said.

Transgender activists argue that the clause removes their right to have a family or it forces them to make a difficult decision between having their legal documents match their gender identity, causing daily humiliation and safety issues due to their ID not matching their gender.

In recent years Sweden’s transgender community has been pushing Parliament to remove the sterilization clause.

“We are encouraging international attention,” said Westerlund, who is working with a number of international human

rights and LGBT organizations. ▼

P: +46 8 786 40 00. Email: riksdagsinformation@riksdagen.se

A longer version is available online at ebar.com.

Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at 00+1-415-221-3541, Skype: heather.cassell, or heather@whimsymedia.com.

Contact: The Swedish Parliament, 100 12 Stoczzzkholm.

<< The Sports Page

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 19-25, 2012

▼

Fear and grappling in Las Vegas

by Roger Brigham

L

as Vegas is the most improbable of cities. Plopped down in the midst of a vast desert plain with horizons rimmed by forbidding mountains, it emerges into view on our descent as a Dali-esque fantasy – a kind of Pee-wee Herman’s Big Acid Adventure meets Disneyland on Steroids.

I had the chance to fly to Vegas last weekend for the fifth annual Sin City Shootout, which in half a decade has expanded from a modest softball tournament to a thriving multi-sport sports festival.

This year’s edition, which drew almost 4,000 athletes, included softball, basketball, wrestling, and bodybuilding.

“Tennis had to back out at the last minute but is going to promote early for 2013,” said Eric Ryan, Sin City tournament director. “All of the sports said with a full year to now promote for 2013 and build the hype with this year’s athletes they expect a larger athlete pool next year. Softball had 163 teams, which is a record for any LGBT softball event in the world.”

The real star throughout the weekend was Vegas itself. There are no opening and closing ceremonies at the Sin City Shootout: just lots of playing on and off the field.

“My favorite highlight was at the Sunday closing party at RPM at Tropicana,” Ryan said. “I got there two hours early to make sure everything was in place, ready to go.

An hour before the doors opened, people were lining up. Once the doors actually opened a little after 9 p.m., the line was halfway through the hotel casino for an hour straight.”

Speaking of straight, the Miss America pageant was simultaneously being staged at Sin City’s host hotel, Planet Hollywood. You haven’t lived until you’ve ridden the elevator at Planet Hollywood accompanied by two burly women’s softball players in uniform standing next to a pageant princess wearing a state sash across her gown, a dazzling tiara in her hurricanes-couldn’tmove-it hairdo and a vacant look in her eyes. I so wanted to ask aloud to no one in particular, “And what would you do for world peace if you were nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court?”

I saw the same state princess in the elevator on Sunday, dressed a tad more sanely post contest and not in the best of moods. She was telling a friend about meeting a man while with her sister.

“He looked at her and told me, ‘she’s a lot prettier than you,’” Princess said. “Did he say that with a straight face,” the friend asked.

“Oh, he said it with a straight face,” Princess replied with a huff. “There wasn’t anything straight about him,

Roger Brigham

Michael Ognibene, left, stands with Golden Gate Wrestling Club president Gene Dermody and Southern California’s Chris Lorefice, who organized the Runyon Wrestling Classic. Ognibene, who was inducted into the Hall of Merit later in the day Saturday, wrestled in the freestyle tournament – his first competition in nine years.

but he said it with a straight face.”

Twenty-four teams competed in basketball, including teams from New York, Georgia, Illinois, and Texas. The numbers were considerably smaller in the remaining sports. Only three contestants competed in bodybuilding, causing organizers to cancel the early Saturday session and hold just a Saturday night pose down.

The other sport that debuted this year was wrestling. Southern California Wrestling Club has been trying for a while to host a freestyle tournament but has had trouble securing a venue in Los Angeles. SCWC and Wrestlers WithOut Borders representatives worked with Ryan over the past year to create the Runyon Wrestling Classic, which drew about 30 registrants and 13 freestyle competitors to the Saturday tournament for 20 matches.

Four members of the WWB Hall of Merit were inducted Saturday evening, including Bay Area residents Rochelle Robinson and Albert “Ace” Rocek, as well as New York City’s Michael Ognibene and former SCWC coach Mike Rios.

The wrestling weekend was capped with WWB’s first-ever grappling clinic. Instructors named Viper and Turtle (hey – it’s Vegas, what else would they be named?) demonstrated to nine wrestlers moves and nuances of submission wrestling.

Representatives from the 2014 Cleveland Gay Games were in

town, visiting the various sports venues and chatting it up with the athletes and organizers. I sat with them as the grapplers learned to do the unspeakable to each other in front of us, and talked about how forms such as grappling and beach wrestling appealed to different individuals in the LGBT wrestling community and offered chances for socialization more easily than the formal freestyle tournaments.

Submission wrestling is wrestling’s rebellion against the nanny state. As Viper demonstrated how to choke out an opponent in a standing guillotine, Turtle told the wrestlers new to the Dark Side, “Most of the things forbidden in freestyle wrestling are legal in submission wrestling.”

Ah, forbidden fruit: Vegas’ enduring allure. Ryan expects more people to come in future years to nibble the goodies.

“Softball the first year had roughly 40 teams and grew each year as the hype and reputation for customer service our tournament staff provides,” he said. “I expect the other sports would grow with the same momentum as softball as they participate year after year. It’s the ability for the athletes to know well ahead of time the date and location so they can get reasonable airfare that definitely helps the numbers grow.”▼

Obituaries >> Ernestine “Butchie” Robinson January 19, 1927 - December 25, 2011

Ernestine “Butchie” Robinson left this life on Christmas morning 2011 in her home in South San Francisco. She was a passionate, supportive, and artistic mother of four. She earned her nickname by being a star hitter on the boy’s baseball team in high school. Butchie was a longtime PFLAG member. After her youngest son was among the first to test HIV-positive in 1984 she sustained him and his friends with her humor and good spirits. She was a tireless source of encouragement and love. Butchie will be greatly missed by many friends and family.

ebar.com

▼ <<

Community News >>

Religious leaders

From page 1

Archbishop and Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; H. David Burton, presiding bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints; and Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals. It also includes the Bishop of Oakland, California, the Most Reverend Salvatore J. Cordileone.

Cordileone is the chair of the Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.

“There is no doubt that many people and groups whose moral and religious convictions forbid samesex sexual conduct will resist the compulsion of the law and church and state conflicts will result,” the leaders caution in the January 12 letter, entitled “Marriage and Religious Freedom: Fundamental Goods That Stand or Fall Together.”

The signatories say that faith-based adoption agencies would be required to place children with civilly married

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AOF From page 1

auction, and raffle will go to the beneficiaries.

“The more people that attend, the more money we raise,” Edelman said.

Edelman said the payout to beneficiaries “boils down to one thing: Come to the gala.”

This year’s partners are Huckleberry Youth Programs, Maitri, Shanti, Tenderloin Health, and the Women’s HIV Program at UCSF. This week, Maitri sent out an email promoting the gala and urging its supporters to purchase tickets.

AOF has contributed more than $8.5 million to Bay Area HIV and AIDS service organizations since it was founded more than 30 years ago by a group of friends at a private home. It went on to become a lavish affair but the recent recession and

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Speier From page 6

less of San Francisco and more of the southern end of the Peninsula, including East Palo Alto and east Menlo Park, home to the social media giant Facebook.

While more of San Francisco’s heavily populated LGBT neighborhoods have been added to the district of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), Speier said that would not mean she won’t continue to champion LGBT issues.

“As much as you may think the LGBT community lives in one area of San Francisco, that isn’t true. I see those issues will continue to be very

<<

News Briefs From page 2

same-sex couples and that religious employers would be required to extend medical health care benefits to same-sex spouses.

The letter, posted on the website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, holds out marriage between heterosexual couples as the “true definition” that “must be protected for its own sake and for the good of society.”

The religious leaders also assert that, in opposing same-sex marriage, they and their followers have been “marked” as “bigots, subjecting them to the full arsenal of government punishments and pressures reserved for racists.”

Nationwide, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has been at the forefront advocating against equal civil-marriage rights for gay couples. One leading opponent is Dolan, whom the pope will elevate to cardinal next month.

Days before conservative religious leaders released their letter, Pope Benedict XVI said same-sex marriage posed a threat to “humanity” adding, “Pride of place goes the family, based on the

continuing economic slowdown have seen a drastic decrease in donations. Edelman hopes to turn that around.

The gala, through sales of raffle tickets, tickets, and other underwriting, used to require that beneficiaries raise 25 percent of their pledged grant.

But in recent years, AOF hasn’t delivered what partner agencies were expecting. The 11 nonprofits that worked with the agency on the 2010 gala were asked to return for 2011 so AOF could make good on its pledges. All but one of the groups agreed.

AOF had initially said it would distribute a combined $220,000 to the 11 organizations. (The returning groups included the five 2012 partners.)

But in May 2011, AOF representatives told beneficiaries they were backing out of paying what they owed. About $150,000 had remained to be paid.

marriage of a man and a woman.”

“This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society,” he said. “Consequently, the policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself.”

Swift reaction Catholic advocates for LGBT equality reacted swiftly to the pope’s harsh words and the open letter.

“The pope has it wrong, but this time he has it diametrically wrong,” said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of Mount Rainier, Marylandbased New Ways Ministry, a gay positive ministry of outreach with LGBT Catholics, their families, and friends.

“The threat to ‘human dignity and the future of humanity’ comes not from marriage equality but in opposition to it,” he added in a New Ways Ministry blog posting.

In e-mail correspondence, DeBernardo said that the open letter’s threat of “compulsion is a fantasy that exists in the conservative religious leaders’ heads.”

Lydia Gonzales

Board chair Howard Edelman

Changes Since then, changes have been made.

AOF is asking for beneficiaries to provide as much support as they can, but specific requirements haven’t been made. The nonprofit hasn’t

important,” she said. “I represent part of San Francisco, which means I represent all of San Francisco. I am sure Speaker Pelosi feels the same way.”

Speier’s slip of the tongue, for Pelosi lost hold of the speakership in 2010 when the GOP reclaimed the House, signals her belief that Democrats can take back the majority this November.

“Pelosi does have a chance to be speaker,” said Speier, noting she remains a prodigious fundraiser for her party.

The prospect of seeing the issue of same-sex marriage once again be interjected into the presidential and congressional races is not giving Speier any pause in terms

of her party’s chances. Four years ago the California Supreme Court’s allowance of same-sex marriage in the summer of 2008 and the passage of a constitutional amendment overriding that decision placed the issue of marriage equality squarely before the candidates and voters.

Battles over marriage equality in Washington state, New Jersey, and Maryland are already dominating headlines. And expected decisions from several federal courts on the issue, including whether California voters had the right to deny gay and lesbian couples the right to marry, is sure to keep same-sex marriage a key talking point in 2012.

“When you have so many states already that are authorizing same-

( w w w. e b a r. co m / n e w s / a r t i c l e . php?sec=news&article=67307).

Tenderloin Health community forum

447-5000 or visit www.nps.gov/safr.

Goldstein memorial date changed

Time change for LGBT seniors hearing

Friends of the late Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club president Michael Goldstein, who died last month of complications related to stage four non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and AIDS, have announced that the celebration of his life has been moved to Sunday, January 29.

The change was made because of the 49ers football game this Sunday, said Eileen Hansen.

The time and location remain the same: 3 to 5 p.m. at SEIU Local 1021, 350 Rhode Island (entrance at 17th and Kansas streets). For more information, contact Hansen at eileenhansensf8@yahoo.com.

There has been a time change for next week’s Board of Supervisors committee hearing on LGBT seniors.

The hearing, set for Thursday, January 26 before the board’s Government Audit and Oversight Committee, will start at 1 p.m. at City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place. A Guest Opinion published in last week’s Bay Area Reporter (hwww.ebar.com/columns/column. php?sec=guest_op&article=357) has been updated to reflect the correct time, as has an article that included information about the meeting

January 19-25, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Tenderloin Health, which announced earlier this month that it is closing due to budget cuts, will hold a community forum next week so that people can discuss their concerns. The agency’s clients are also encouraged to attend.

The meeting will be held Thursday, January 26 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at 187 Golden Gate Avenue (at Leavenworth).

Refreshments will be provided.

The agency has been scrambling since Executive Director David Fernandez announced January 5 that it would close. As of last week, however, Fernandez said he was working to try to keep the agency open. Tenderloin Health provides services to people living with HIV/AIDS as well as those at risk for acquiring HIV.▼

“No one is going to be compelled to do anything,” he said. “If religious organizations do not follow government regulations, they will simply not receive government funding.”

“We are not going to see bishops going to jail over this,” DeBernardo said.

Interestingly, DeBernardo said, “At least for the Catholic bishops who signed this statement, there was never any uproar over providing benefits to divorced, remarried, but not annulled people. The same Catholic principles of marriage apply in that case. Why is there only an uproar when gay and lesbian people are involved?”

Phil Attey, executive director of Catholics for Equality, said the Catholic bishops are recasting themselves from “bullies” to “victims.”

“Politically, it’s imperative for the bishops to change the narrative,” he said. “And the best way to do this is to fabricate injustices against them.

Ergo, we have their new ‘religious liberties’ campaign.”

Catholics for Equality is a national LGBT advocacy organization.

The use of public funds by faith-

based organizations is a key, said advocates and legal experts, not religious freedom. Privately funded, religious-based, charitable and social services programs are exempt from non-discrimination laws. But such taxpayer-funded faith-based programs are required to comply with state non-discrimination laws.

“Religious freedom does not include a right to special exemptions from the laws that bind all citizens,” said Tobias Wolff, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. “Neither does religious freedom include a right to avoid criticism for one’s beliefs. Adherents to religions that preach discrimination against LGBT people have a right to explore their beliefs. They do not have a right to turn those beliefs into law, and they do not have a right to pursue their beliefs free from the disapproval of their fellow citizens.”▼

made specific dollar commitments to partners, either.

About 20 gala tickets have been sold so far, Edelman said, bringing in $5,000. Raffle ticket sales have generated about $2,500, he said. He said they’d like to raise $75,000 from the silent auction.

The Hollywood award season is in full swing, with the Golden Globes being handed out last Sunday. Oscar nominations are set to be announced Tuesday, January 24. AOF officials are hoping the growing interest in the awards will spark ticket sales.

AOF has come close to raising the money it will need to pay for the gala, which has a budget of $150,000.

Before AT&T came onboard, corporate sponsors had pledged about $70,000, and about $58,000 has been raised through underwriting, Edelman said.

“It’s quite an achievement, because we came from behind” to get this close to having the gala paid for, Edelman said. “It was really difficult, but people

are stepping up.”

Kaushik Roy, executive director of Shanti, which offers support to people with life-threatening illnesses, including HIV/AIDS, said in response to emailed questions, “Even though the last couple of years have been very difficult, AOF has an incredible history of supporting [AIDS service organizations] and the community.

They’ve been very generous to Shanti, historically, and we wanted to continue our support of them in these tough times.”

Tenderloin Health, another beneficiary, recently announced plans to shut down. Edelman wouldn’t comment on what might happen to the money the agency would have received if they do close.

AOF’s overall budget, including costs associated with the gala, is $532,000. Edelman said they let go of their last employee in November, and monthly expenses are “minimal.”

For more information, visit scandalous2012.com.▼

sex marriages, you cannot go back.

You just can’t go back,” said Speier, adding she is “very optimistic” about seeing California’s anti-gay marriage ban be overturned.

But she declined to hazard a guess on whether Obama would come out for marriage equality this year, as some have speculated he will do in order to energize LGBT and

progressive voters.

“I don’t know. I don’t know him well enough to give you an assessment. But Dianne Feinstein came out for it,” said Speier, noting that California’s senior U.S. senator is now pushing to overturn the federal ban against samesex marriage. “Republicans have nowhere to go.”▼

To read the letter, go to usccb. org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/marriage/ promotion-and-defense-ofmarriage/ecumenical-andinterreligious-activities.cfm.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

10 • Bay Area Reporter • January 19-25, 2012

Classifieds

t

Legal Notices>>

The

Legal Notices>> notice of application FOR CHANGE IN OWNERSHIP OF alcoholic beverage LICENSE Dated 01/10/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : FLL TRADE INVESTMENT. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 3253 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94110-5006. Type of license applied

41- On-sale BEER AND WINE eating place jan 19, 2012 SURROGATE’S cOURT:STATE OF NEW YORK,COUNTY OF DELAWARE. IN THE MATTER OF A PROCEEDING FOR PROBATE OF THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF EUNICE E. RICHARDS, DECEASED. CITATION FILE NO 2011-233 The People of the State of New York by the Grace of God Free and Independent.

TO: The heir at law and distributees of Eunice E. Richards, decedent,to wit:TIMOTHY RICHARDS, said person being the known heir at law,next of kin and successor in interest of Eunice E. Richards,deceased,if living on August 13,2011,the date of decedent’s death,or if he died after that date,then to his executors,administrators,heirs,distr ibutes and all persons interested in his estate,their names and addresses,if any,being unknown to the petitioner and cannot after diligent inquiry be ascertained by the petitioner.

YOU ARE HEREBY CITED TO SHOW CAUSE before the Surrogate’s Court of the County of Delaware at the office of the Surrogate in the Courthouse, Delhi, New York on the 23rd day of January,2012 at 9:30am,why the Petition for Probate admitting to probate a Will dated July 22,2004,and praying that Letters Testamentary issue to Victoria Merritt,who resides at 5494 State Highway 23 Norwich,New York 13815,should not be granted,relating to the real and personal property of Eunice E. Richards,deceased,who at the time of her death domiciled at 5494 State Highway 23,Norwich,New York 13815 in the County of Delaware, New York. Dated:12/12/11 Hon.Carl F.Becker, Surrogate Signed Lisa Loucks, Chief Clerk Attorney for Petitioner; Beth Westfall,COUGHLIN & Gerhart,LLP PO Box 2039,Binghamton, NY 13902 607-723-9511

dec 29,2011,jan 5,12,19, 2012 statement file A-034007400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as NIKKI BLACK,3901 19th St.,SF,CA 94114.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Nancy Kinnunen.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/16/11

dec 29,2011,jan 5,12,19, 2012 statement file A-034016600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CONSULERIS,101 California St.,Suite 2710,SF,CA 94111.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Brian C.Browning.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/06/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/21/11

dec 29,2011,jan 5,12,19, 2012 statement file A-033993600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as RHOTECH SOLAR,130 Produce Ave.,Suite C,South SF,CA 94080.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Richard O. Rhodes.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/09/11

dec 29,2011,jan 5,12,19, 2012 statement file A-034019700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as DOWN TO EARTH LIVING SOIL SOUTIONS, 1390 Page St.,#1,SF,CA 94117.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Mary Gerber.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/22/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/22/11

dec 29,2011,jan 5,12,19, 2012 statement file A-034013500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as BYE BYE GRAFFITI,585 Cordova St.,SF,CA 94112.

This business is conducted by an individual, signed Faiyaz Razak.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/05/11.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/20/11

dec 29,2011,jan 5,12,19, 2012

statement file A-034051300

statement file A-034032600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CS DESIGN MANAGEMENT,499 Alabama St.,#117, CA 94110.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Carol Satriani. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/12/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/12/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SUN MAY GIFT CO., 1151 Grant Ave.,SF,CA 94133.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Reagan Huang.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/4/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/4/12.

jan 19,26,feb 2,9,2012 statement file A-034051600 statement file A-033973300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as MARCUS CONTEMPORARY GLASS,901 Mission St.,Suite 105,SF,CA 94103.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Michael Marcus.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/29/11

dec 29,2011,jan 5,12,19, 2012 statement file A-034017200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as VOCALLECTIVE,153 Wood St., SF,CA 94118.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Indre Viskontas.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/21/11

dec 29,2011,jan 5,12,19, 2012 statement file A-034019000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ROGUE,272 Sutter St., SF,CA 94108.This business is conducted by a corporation, signed Stanley L. Pas.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/22/11

jan 5,12,19,26,2012 statement file A-034020800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as AHA YOGA,1892 Union St., SF,CA 94123.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, signed Brigitta Herst.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/13/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/23/11

jan 5,12,19,26,2012 statement file A-034029300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as BANGKOK BEST,301 Kearny St.,SF,CA 94108.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Mark Wannaviroj.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 01/03/12

jan 5,12,19,26,2012 statement file A-034029200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CIRCUIT WEST,576 Sacramento St.,6th Floor, SF,CA 94111.This business is conducted by a coporation, signed David Carrasco.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 01/03/12

jan 5,12,19,26,2012 statement file A-034024000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as GREEN PETAL DESIGNS,101 Cortland Ave.,SF,CA 94110.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Janelle Jacky.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/28/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/28/11

jan 5,12,19,26,2012 statement file A-034022900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as VAN MAREN CONCEPTS,406 B Washington Blvd.,SF,CA 94129.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Nicholas Christianson.

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/27/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/27/11

jan 5,12,19,26,2012 statement file A-034021600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as FLYING PIG BISTRO,433 South Van Ness Ave.,SF,CA 94103.This business is conducted by a general partnership, signed Benjamin Sapone.

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/23/11.

jan 5,12,19,26,2012 statement file A-034030000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as S&T SERVICING CO.,457 Jessie St.,3/F, SF,CA 94103.This business is conducted by a corporation, signed Roger Shum.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 01/03/12.

jan 5,12,19,26,2012

To place your print and online Classified ad, go to

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notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 01/12/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : 20 SPOT MISSION, LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 3565 20th St., San Francisco, CA 94110-2420. Type of license applied

41- On-sale BEER AND WINE eating place jan 19,26,feb 2, 2012 statement file A-034027800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LAST STOP SOUVENIERS,498 Beach St., SF,CA 94133.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Ulises C.Napuri. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/12/12.

jan 19,26,feb 2,9,2012

jan 19,26,feb 2,9,2012

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Legal Services>> The Law Offices of

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BAY AREA CARE GIVERS,907 Greenwich St., SF,CA 94133.This business is conducted by a general partnership, signed Mindy Tsoi.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/30/11.

PATRICK MCMAHON

BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY We file Chapter 7 & Chapter 13 for individuals & small businesses who face: • WAGE GARNISHMENT • CREDITOR HARASSMENT • FORECLOSURE • TAXES • REPOSSESSION • STUDENT LOANS

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jan 12,19,26,feb 2,2012 statement file A-034020700

Bankruptcy may be the answer...

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DIRECPARK LLC,1101 Sutter St., SF,CA 94109.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, signed Shuli Yao.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/23/11.

FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION (415) 543-9338

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To place your Classified ad,

jan 12,19,26,feb 2,2012 statement file A-034031800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as EXCELSIOR QUALITY AUTO,4380 Mission St., SF,CA 94112.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Pedro F. Fiori Jr..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 01/04/12.

Call David at 415-861-5019.

Then go have a drink and relax...

jan 12,19,26,feb 2,2012 statement file A-034030200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE 2 BANDITS,230 Oak St.,#44, SF,CA 94102.

This business is conducted by an individual, signed Tamar Wider. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/03/12.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/03/12.

jan 12,19,26,feb 2,2012 statement file A-034042900

Maybe go to the Pilsner for their “Build Your Own Bloody Mary Bar” on Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 2pm.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as 1.TEV LEE 2.TEV LEE PHOTOGRAPHY,135 South Park St.,SF,CA 94107.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Steven Lee. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/09/12.

jan 12,19,26,feb 2,2012 statement file A-034035000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as STOCKCARS TO ZEBRAS – SPORTS,NOVELTY, JEWELRY,760 Market St.,#731,SF,CA 94102.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Thore Aatlo. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/05/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/05/12.

Just a thought.

jan 12,19,26,feb 2,2012 statement file A-034043700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as BE QUAKE READY NOW,180 Beaver St.,#3,SF,CA 94114.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Richard W. Mytton. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/10/12.

jan 12,19,26,feb 2,2012 state of california in and for the county of san francisco file# cnc-12-548356 In the matter of the application of KATE SOLODKY for change of name. The application of KATE SOLODKY for change of name having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that KATE SOLODKY filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to KATE SOLODKY ROZENVASSER. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 514 on the 22nd of March, 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted

jan 19,26,feb 2,9,2012 statement file A-034051700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as FIVE DOLLAR TRANSPORTS,473 Lynbrook Drive, Pacifica, CA 94044.This business is conducted by an individual, signed Franz Vargas. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/12/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/12/12.

jan 19,26,feb 2,9,2012

Photography>> Notices>>

LGBT WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY

Did you know Tom Burdick(1950-1993)?

No obituary was written, but he deserves to be remembered.

Seeking friends’ descriptions / memories of Tom plus a picture as an adult (with Bob?) to complete his life story.

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County of Alameda Supr. Court. Dept 31. Any reason to deny Petition changing Rosemary L. Finnigan to proposed name Mrs. Robert J. Finn – must appear for Judge Ron Rolefson three days in adv hearing schedule: January 27,2012 at 201 Thirteenth St. Oakland,at 9:30am Case no RG 11592109

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January 19-25, 2012 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

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O&A Out &About

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Vol. 42 • No. 03 • January 19-25, 2012

www.ebar.com/arts

Wit & whimsy in the Rainbow Forest >> by Sura Wood

W

ith his gentle demeanor, mustache, and twinkling eyes, John Bankston is as congenial as one would surmise from his artistic creations. Using the palette and flavor of childhood coloring books – vivid color is a prominent feature of his drawings, paintings and sculptures – he weaves narratives of African American cowboys, pirates and other whimsical creatures who inhabit imaginary universes. Though his work is playful and its beguiling humor disarms the viewer, there are hints of shifting identities, racial and sexual, and a deeper, more serious subtext. Is there something subversive just behind the curtain? Bankston charges viewers to determine that for themselves.

A spinner of tales, a visual novelist – apt descriptions of the gay, San Francisco-based African-American artist, who spends time at his studio in Hunter’s Point when not tending to the needs of his beloved French Bulldog, who demands a daily afternoon walk. “Without her, my day would have no structure,” he joked ruefully in a recent conversation.

Over the course of his career, Bankston has drawn from myriad sources including, as Holland Cotter has noted in The New York Times, 19th-century slave narratives, children’s books and homoerotic S&M See page 14 >>

“Night Machine” (2011), oil on linen, by John Bankston.

Courtesy of the artist and Rena Bransten Gallery

Spectral story of San Francisco

by Richard Dodds

D

o you remember where you were when: 1. JFK was shot?

2. Man first walked on the moon?

3. Princess Diana died?

4. George Moscone was assassinated?

For me, the answer to the first three questions is vividly yes. The answer to Number 4 is remembrance by association.

I was at work in the main newsroom of a New Orleans newspaper in 1978 when an editor yelled out, “Harvey Milk is dead.” While news of Mayor Moscone’s concurrent death must have arrived soon

after, I don’t have those words to replay in my head. It’s a variation on experiences that the new play Ghost Light recognizes as typical, a recognition that wavers among sorrow, resignation, and anger.

What I do have in vivid memories came later on the evening news, with the shaky video of Dianne Feinstein on the City Hall steps announcing the deaths of Moscone and Milk to gasps, shrieks, and a clearly exclaimed “Jesus Christ.” That video shows up almost as soon as Ghost Light begins, as a kid’s reverie in front of the television is interrupted by a news bulletin leading with the videotape of Feinstein’s announcement. And again we gasp.

The boy is 14-year-old Jon Moscone, son of Mayor George Moscone, who grows up to be a theater director. He is not to be overtly confused with Jonathan Moscone, who was 14 when his father was killed, and grew up to be a theater director. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely non-coincidental.

The road to the creation of Ghost Light is so less traveled to the point where its makers must have been laying the macadam as they proceeded. And so Berkeley Artistic Director Tony Taccone mined the memories, emotions, quirks, See page 15 >>

kevinberne.com

Tyler James Myers, as the son of a murdered San Francisco mayor, is visited by a stranger (Peter Macon) with a mysterious message to deliver in Ghost Light at Berkeley Rep.

St. Sebastian gets pierced

by Philip Campbell

T Kristen Loken

San Francisco Symphony et al. perform Debussy’s and Gabriele d’Annunzio’s Le martyre de Saint Sebastien last week in Davies Symphony Hall.

he San Francisco Symphony is cannonballing into the new year and the second half of the centennial season with real energy and determination. Two recent weeks at Davies Symphony Hall proved yet again Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas’ remarkable commitment to challenging repertoire, probing interpretation and meticulous performances. Most recently this manifested in an extravagant evening devoted to a semi-staged production of Claude Debussy’s incidental music to Gabriele d’Annunzio’s “Mystery Composed in French Rhythm,” Le martyre de Saint Sebastien.

{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS }

If you think that is a tongue-twister, it is even harder to describe. Suffice it to say, The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian was originally conceived as a mixture of the arts: scenic, choreographic, dramatic and musical. Poet Gabriele d’Annunzio was a force of nature in his time, and he managed to get the vast project moving with the sheer force of his brilliant personality and popular appeal.

Enter Ida Rubinstein, another firebrand and a rich, self-centered patron of the arts with a unique personal beauty and just enough performing talent to get the whole five-hour show up and running.

Original impresario Gabriel Astruc remarked afterwards that it was hard to understand how such See page 17 >>

<< Fine Art

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 19-25, 2012

<<

▼

John Bankston From page 13

fantasy. “With its adroit juggling of innocence and experience and its witty, jazzed-up Winnie-thePooh style,” Cotter wrote, “Mr. Bankston’s work is as understated as it is sophisticated.” For Smoke and Mirrors, his latest show at Rena Bransten Gallery in SF, Bankston has forged yet another brave new world, one that’s equal parts science fiction and Grimm’s fairy tale.

Sura Wood: One doesn’t see too may gay, African-American cowboys and pirates out there in the world, or as part of the art scene. So I guess you’ve developed a real niche. What is it about childhood coloring books and role-playing that’s captivated your imagination?

John Bankston: When I was growing up, I saw very few AfricanAmericans of any sort in coloring books. Using a coloring book is something we all have in common.

It’s our first experience as visual creators. Coloring books reinforce accepted notions about how individuals are to be in society when they’re adults. I hope my work sparks viewers to interrogate seemingly benign elements of our culture.

In terms of art, I always used a line to define the forms and contain the color in my paintings. At some point, I thought, “What would a painting look like if the line and the color had equal importance?” I was looking for a way to incorporate gesture, color and flatness with figuration. The result of this experiment reminded me of the visual language of coloring books.

In earlier works like “Bronze Cowboy” [on view at SFMOMA’s SECA exhibition], I would leave areas “uncolored.” I felt these areas were openings for the viewer to enter the work and use their imagination. Actually, this painting was inspired by a visit to the black cowboy museum in Denver.

While I borrow from the visual language of coloring books, the work isn’t really about coloring books or childhood. We learn to practice role-play as children. As adults we’ve perfected the practice.

I’m more interested in the way adults present themselves through performative dress. San Francisco is a great place to witness this. We’ve got pirates, cowboys and nuns with beards on the street, and that’s just in a three-block radius.

Rena Bransten Gallery

Artist John Bankston with arts writer Sura Wood at the opening of his show Smoke and Mirrors at Rena Bransten Gallery.

Courtesy of the artist and Rena Bransten Gallery

“Looking Forward” (2011), sculpture: oil and acrylic on epoxy, clay and wood; painting: oil on panel, by John Bankston.

Do you think your stories and imagery are filtered through a gay sensibility?

At this point I don’t know what that term means regarding the work.

The characters in my work are black men who have left a place that is determined to strangle, label and pigeon-hole them, for another place where they determine their own identity through performative dress or costumes.

How has your background shaped you as an artist?

The work is informed by African art and outsider or self-taught artists.

I’m very interested in the mythmaking, spontaneity and humor in this art.

Could you describe the mythical realm you’ve created in your current show?

The setting for all the work is a place I call Rainbow Forest. It’s where one can go to become the character of one’s dreams. Life there has been beautiful for the cowboys, pirates, magicians and others. But recently, a couple of characters have conspired to create a machine that changes anyone who looks at it. The sense of

On the web This week, find the Lavender Tube column by Victoria A. Brownworth and the leather events calendar by Scott Brogan online at ebar. com. The Out There column will return next week.

harmony is lost in Rainbow Forest.

You’ve used some paper sculptures here reminiscent of the papiermache many of us experimented with in grade school. Is there something about the creative experiences you had as a kid that still intrigues you?

No, I just have a lot of paper in my studio. I love paper. I think of these as three-dimensional drawings.

What’s a typical day for you?

My studio time is loosely structured. I start the day by working in my sketchbook or a drawing. The drawing might get interesting and take the day. Or, if I feel warmed up, I’ll start a painting or sculpture in the afternoon. Some days, I just stretch canvases.

Are you as immersed in your stories and their characters as a novelist might be?

I don’t have back stories for them.

But I like them all, even the tricksters.

Did you come from a creative family?

My mother is a very good storyteller, and so was my father.

How would you like people to think of you – as a magical storyteller, dream weaver, a graphic novelist?

Any of the above would be amazing. I have the great American graphic novel on the back burner.

Someday!▼ Smoke and Mirrors runs through Jan. 28. www.renabranstengallery.com

▼

Theatre >>

January 19-25, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

kevinberne.com

Danforth Comins plays the imagined personification of a theater director’s online boyfriend in Ghost Light at Berkeley Rep.

<<

Ghost Light From page 13

and tics of Jonathan Moscone, Artistic Director of California Shakespeare Theatre, for a theatrical work that Moscone would direct.

It’s Moscone’s story filtered through playwright Taccone’s sensibilities and then brought to stage life by Moscone.

The results are a play of such complexities that parts could come crashing down, and yet they don’t.

While the play lingers longer than it should, with two endings that could be conflated into one, the results are more than just stageworthy. This is a compelling story that effectively shuttles between 1978 and the present day, and even between reality and fantasy for both the child and adult versions of Jon as the character must finally embrace his larger-than-life father figure before he can mourn and release him.

The set-up for the ultimately restorative breakdown is an appropriately theatrical one. Jon, the grown-up director, can’t get on with his planned production of Hamlet because he is obsessing over the scenes featuring the ghost of Hamlet’s murdered father. What should the vision look like, and how should Hamlet respond to this unsettling spirit that insists Hamlet seek revenge for his murder?

This need for revenge takes a different form in the adult Jon, for whom no physical revenge upon his father’s murderer is possible inasmuch as Dan White took his own life in 1985. Jon’s version of bitterness stems from the celebrity martyr Harvey Milk has become for the gay community (and, ironically, Jon is gay) while his father’s achievements, including opening city government to gays, lesbians, women, and minorities, have fallen by the wayside in the Milk juggernaut. It boils over when Hollywood comes to San Francisco to tell the tale of Harvey Milk, with the mayor as a walk-on role.

Played by Christopher Liam Moore, who originated the role last year at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the adult Jon is a bundle of undirected energy and agitated malaise. Moore provides a sharp sense of a real person who doesn’t always deal smoothly with issues big and small. In addition to his

theatrical block, which provides reason for clever repartee with his assistant (a snappy and sympathetic Robynn Rodriguez), Jon is also fretting over plans to actually meet his online sweetie whose handle is Loverboy (a fetching Danforth Comins in fantasy mode, and Ted Deasy in the flesh). And then there are Jon’s horrific nightmares in which he is visited by an armed, goading, homophobic prison guard (the effectively threatening Bill Geisslinger) who looks a lot like his loutish grandfather. Through it all, Jon tries to maintain an apolitical position until he explodes with a rant against just about everything political – left, right, and inbetween.

The intercut flashbacks have more of an ethereal quality, bathed in blue light reflected off Todd Rosenthal’s cold-stone set that recreates pieces of City Hall. The 14-year-old Jonathan, confidently played by Tyler James Myers, wanders through a world of therapy sessions, funeral services with empty coffins, and encounters with a mysterious figure (Peter Macon) who tries to point the boy in the right spiritual direction.

Scenes from vintage television comedies flicker at times on the several onstage screens, pulling us out of a dark moment or providing ironic contrast to the terrors of the real world. And one of the most appalling moments in the play comes from one of these sitcom snippets. It’s from The Golden Girls, when Bea Arthur’s Dorothy sees Betty White’s Rose eating a mound of junk food and says, “Next you’ll be shooting the mayor of San Francisco.”

You don’t have to have lived long in San Francisco to realize it marches to a different drummer than the rest of the world. Ghost Light feels like a part of my legacy, even though my arrival came many years after the Milk-Moscone murders and the ugly aftermath. But the play is also working on a universal plane that dates back far further than Hamlet.

Ghost Light could be a reasonable choice for regional theaters around the country, but it will always leave its heart in San Francisco.▼ Ghost Light will run at Berkeley Rep through Feb. 19. Tickets are $14.50-$73. Call (510) 647-2949 or go to www.berkeleyrep.org.

Jenny Graham

Robynn Rodriguez and Christopher Liam Moore play theater colleagues trying to get Moore’s character unstuck in Ghost Light.

<< Society

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 19-25, 2012

▼

Chili royale!

by Donna Sachet

W

hen the Imperials and the Ducals duke it out, crowds gather, jewels fly, and money is always raised for a great cause!

Last week’s Chili Cook-Off in the Castro was no exception! With gorgeous weather and an outdoor patio, The Mix proved the perfect setting for lively conversation, colorful costumes, and freeflowing cocktails as members of the Imperial Court and the Ducal Court presented their best chili dishes to be sampled. Somehow the eventual triumph of the Imperial team seemed inconsequential, but the nearly $1,000 raised for St. Aidan’s Food Pantry will go to great and immediate use. Among the crowd were visiting Miss Gay California 2011 Delorian Chase (who graciously emceed), Grand Duke Alan Toomey, Mr. Gay SF 2011 Kit Tapata, Miss Golden Gate 2011 Baby Shaques, Erick Lopez, and visiting members of the courts of at least five other cities.

Although there have been a number of well-deserved thank you parties for Tom Nolan, the outgoing Executive Director of Project Open Hand, none surpassed last Monday’s cabaret tribute at Martuni’s co-hosted by Trauma Flintstone and Carly Ozard.

Many friends delivered funny and heartfelt songs, including the cohosts and Jennifer Martinelli, Darlene Popovic, Dennis Sanchez, Cara Burgoyne, and Alyssa Stone, but most came simply to thank Tom for his 17 years of service to this organization. He spoke briefly, giving great credit to Ruth Brinker, who founded Project Open Hand.

After singing a couple of songs, we introduced new Executive Director Kevin Winge, who brings his energy and experience here from Minneapolis this month.

After the SF 49ers triumph on Saturday, the Castro was in the mood

Steven Underhill

Miss Gay California 2011 Delorian Chase serves up the chili at the Ducal vs. Imperial Court 1st Annual Chili Cook-off.

to celebrate! Building Bridges at The Edge overcame some last-minute changes in format and attracted lots of partiers for a beer bust.

Glimpsed in the crowd were Reigning Emperor Frankie Fernandez, Empresses China Silk, Chablis, and Galilea, Reigning Grand Duchess Kylie Minono, Ray Tilton, Goldblatt, Keith & Gladys Bumps, Emma Peel, Moses Garcia, and Porter William. Hosted by Joseph Nunez, this Imperial Court event benefited local Alexander Hamilton Post 448 of the American Legion, the first chapter organized by and welcoming to openly LGBT veterans.

The Golden Gate Guards Motorcycle Club celebrated its 25th anniversary at the First Unitarian Universalist Church social hall, and members of other clubs, both local and out-of-town, crowded the space for a lively cocktail hour and delicious buffet dinner by Corry’s Culinary Creations. The GGG is the second-oldest continuously operating motorcycle club and remains one of the most active.

Grants were presented to SF SAFE/ Castro Community on Patrol and Tenderloin Tessie Holiday Dinners. This crowd included many of the hardest workers in today’s leather community, such as Mario Torrigino, Jack Goodall, Joan Norry, Steve Gaynes, John Forrett, and Al Aden.▼

Film>>

Dance against death

by David Elijah Nahmod

L

overs of dance and the avantgarde might just be mesmerized

by Wim Wenders’ new documentary about the German choreographer Pina Bausch (1940-2009) and her dance company, Pina. The project had the blessing of Bausch, who intended to participate in the filming. But this wasn’t meant to be.

Shortly before filming began, and only five days after being diagnosed with an unstated form of cancer, Bausch died at age 68. Wenders, encouraged by Bausch’s dancers, proceeded with the project as a tribute and memorial to her life’s work. The film, shot in 3D, is a thrilling sight to behold.

“Dance! Dance! Otherwise we are lost!” Bausch said. Her pieces, about love and pain, are usually performed in elaborate settings. In one thrilling if nerve-wracking segment, a male dancer performs acrobatic steps near the edge of a cliff overlooking a huge canyon. The 3D images underscore the harm’s way he might be in.

“Meeting Pina was like learning to talk,” recalls one dancer. One piece features a man and a woman dancing around each other as they attempt both to woo and escape from each other. It was filmed on a busy street corner in Wuppertal, Germany, the city where Bausch

Laurent Philippe

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch in Vollmond.

operated her company, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. In another piece, a man dances madly about in a building that appears to be constructed entirely of glass. “Andre!” he calls out, as he outstretches his arms. “Andre!” Is he a gay man crying for a lost love?

Wenders’ fluid camera captures these and other pieces with verve and style. His choice to shoot in 3D creates the ambiance of a live performance. The music includes classical pieces as well as jazz and blues, and pulls you into the world of Bausch and her dancers. The

dancers come in all shapes and sizes. Some are young, others well into middle age. Some are short, some tall. They represent a variety of ethnicities. As they share their memories of Bausch, they speak in their native tongues.

The performances are powerful and assured. In some pieces, it’s most impressive to see the ensemble dancing in their bare feet – that must have been quite painful. But their dedication to their craft and to the legacy of their teacher is absolute.

“We become the paint to color her images,” said one dancer.▼

▼

Karrnal>>

January 19-25, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

Western erections

by John F. Karr

Throughout the movie, sound effects are none-toopredicted two things about subtle in telling us we’re porn, and both will be on a ranch. The birds are borne out by my upcoming especially distracting. The reviews. First, that plotted torrent of tweeting in the first porn is either dead or dying, scene sounds like we’re in a and second, that in the future, particularly overpopulated every sexo will have the same aviary. Either that, or I should cast. have roused the guys from The former prediction is their fucking with a shouted fine by me. I never cared for warning, “The Birds is plot anyway, with the nigh Coming!” insurmountable hurdles It’s funny how the horses it poses for both amateur seen in Cowboys only neigh scriptwriters and performers. when they’re off-camera, as if Plot is being killed off by the whinny was wafted in by the surge in VOD, with its the unseen magic of dubbing. need for streamer’s sites The equine effusions get to constantly provide new especially problematic during scenes. Serials are just too the movie’s best scene, with confusing. So Theme is where the estimable Parker London it’s at: Men in Suits, Cowboys, and Colby Keller nearly Pissboys, Wrestlers, etc. The upstaged by what sounds like plan is that when enough a horse snorting right into the similarly themed scenes mic. I suppose all that horsey have been posted, they can gabble is supposed to mirror Raging Stallion Studios be collected onto a DVD for the excitement of the guys’ Porn star Adam Champ, hirsute and home on retail sales. horny gaming, but it becomes The latter point, casting, the range in Raging Stallion’s Cowboys, Part 1. laughable. is of greater concern.

Equally irritating is JD Performers are flitting Slater’s music for the very first hard-ons, To the Last Man. More between companies and scene. It’s so quick, loud and good news is that the performers leapfrogging between websites. jangly that it seems in competition in Cowboys are a Who’s Who of That’s okay if you like a particular with the action, and certainly current stars. Problem is, every one performer and haven’t yet tired indifferent to it. That’s Slater’s only of the movie’s so-called Exclusives of him. But shelf-lives are being misstep, though. The rest of his were Exclusive somewhere else shredded by the way performers soundtrack music is so good I want before (with the small irony seem to be everywhere a CD of it. It’s slower, sexier, and that cast member Aybars at once. suitably supportive. And the walking had been an Exclusive Case in point. Raging blues that underscores the closing for RS and nobody Stallion’s ambitious and scrawl is a mighty sexy saunter. else right up until successful Cowboys I almost always have a problem Cowboys; he became bears witness to One cramming both movie critique a freelancer shortly Cast Fits All as well and sex synopsis into my articles. before it, making as Movies by Theme.

I hate to short-shrift either. One a pair of movies in As most everything is important, and the other is fun.

2011 for Cazzo). And about Cowboys is I’m solving the dilemma this time most of the guys can be currently agreeable, when I talk about some by holding off the horny stuff til seen as well on any number of issues it raises, I’m not rejecting the the next article, when I’ll detail the websites. You’ll also see most of movie. Just discussing things. You’ll juicy sexploits of Cowboys and its them in current Falcon, Jocks and recognize the criticism when I get accompanying efforts, the solo JOs Mustang features, as well as in the to it. of all the Cowboys cast members RS boutique brands Monster Bang The good news is that there’s no in Alone on the Range, and the and Hard Friction, making the plot to Cowboys. Just guys in western fisting ferocities of a few of them movies somewhat undifferentiated gear working on a ranch. That in Ranch Hands. They’re all at from one another. works so much more easily than RagingStallion.com, but check out Well. What about the sound The Plot That Got Away in Raging the nifty 3D display and lotsa pics at effects, and the soundtrack scoring?

Stallion’s previous saga of herds and www.Cowboysxxx.com.▼

I

<<

St. Sebastian From page 13

a collection of great talent could yield such bad results. Astruc probably had some monetary reasons to help explain his frustration, but after a century of artistic tinkering there still doesn’t appear to be a final fix for the grand pageant. Sort of like Leonard Bernstein’s delicious Candide: too many chefs really can spoil the stew.

That doesn’t mean there is no point in trying to preserve some of the ingredients, especially when so much of Debussy’s typically inventive music remains savory.

So one more time and from the top: MTT, the hardy SFS, Ragnar Bohlin’s SFS Chorus, four eminent female vocal soloists, a dancer from the San Francisco Ballet and legend-in-herown-time Frederica von Stade (I guess she has only retired from singing, thank god) all joined forces with director and designer Anne Patterson to see if there can still be some sense made of the tantalizing mish-mash.

Even with a few remaining stretches of agonizing tedium, it appears this crew of cooks has finally found a satisfying way to entertainingly make d’Annunzio and Debussy’s point: martyrdom is exalting and more than a little bit erotic.

Director Patterson’s designs and Adam Larsen’s projections were enormously effective, and the moody lighting by Matthew Frey illuminated the deft positioning of the singers and narrator, in elevated towers above the orchestra. Projections of scantily clad

Kristen Loken

Frederica von Stade was the narrator in Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien.

principal dancer from the SF Ballet Damian Smith, choreographed by Myles Thatcher, were woven into the performance seamlessly, though Sebastian’s ecstasy seemed a trifle underplayed. It was a contemplative rather than passionate interpretation.

Frederica von Stade could not be accused of such reticence. Her full-throated and wonderfully idiomatic French made the most of d’Annuncio’s over-heated narration.

She became the cohesive center of the presentation.

Men and women of the SFS Chorus were rarely grouped together, but their contributions inevitably raised the temperature of the hall. Moving throughout the terrace of DSH, often in near-darkness, the Chorus also

provided structure.

Of the soloists, both soprano Karina Gauvin and local favorite (and favored regular with MTT) mezzosoprano Sasha Cooke were especially effective. Soprano Joanna Taber and mezzo-soprano Leah Wool were also good, if slightly less memorable.

The orchestra was simply wonderful, bending and swaying to every lovely touch of Debussy’s orchestration. Surprisingly, it was MTT who seemed a bit constrained.

He has shown a real commitment to the piece over the years, recording it once and performing it complete in San Francisco back in 1995. This goround found him seemingly more concerned with getting through the score unscathed and directing the traffic than cutting loose with his more characteristic fervency.

The previous week, another breakout performance by violinist Christian Tetzlaff of the Ligeti Violin Concerto had the hall and patrons all a-twitter as well (no, not that kind, thank you). There was a cell phone kafuffle during the second half of the bill, but it was handled by MTT and the audience with patience. If the offending alarm had gone off during the Ligeti, no one might have noticed. We still admire Ligeti’s astonishing originality and unique place in the avant-garde. Tetzlaff could not have made a better case for the enormously difficult score. The piece may not be to all listeners’ tastes, but the performance had most of the sold-out crowd on their feet and cheering.▼

<< Out&About

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 19-25, 2012

O&A

amazingly beautiful yet starkly inhuman settings. $6-$8. 7:30pm. Also Jan 21, 7:30pm & Jan 22, 2pm. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

West Side Story

Out & About

Joan Marcus

SF Sketchfest @ Various Venues

The distance

by Jim Provenzano

S

ome shows are just worth traveling a bit further to see. And considering they traveled hundreds, and in some case thousands, of miles to get near you, your commute isn’t so long by comparison.

Flying all the way from Tulsa with his new Bandmates, talented gay folk-rock singer Eric Himan and his Bandmates perform along with Mia Dyson and Hotels & Highways at the Trevor Project Benefit at Café du Nord, Sunday, January 22. $10$25. 8:30pm. 2170 Market St. 861-5016. www.cafedunord.com Don’t tell me Berkeley’s too much of a bother. Pop in your iPod, BART it, and get thee to UC Berkeley’s various theatres, the largest of which is Zellerbach Hall, where the Peking Acrobats, who flew all the way Eric Himan from Peking, will amaze you with their awe-inspiring feats. $20-$52. Jan 20 & 21, 8pm. Jan 22, 3pm. Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. UC Berkeley campus. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org Literally steps from the Ashby BART stop, Shotgun Players just got an extention to the run of its hit play, God’s Plot, at the Ashby Stage. Written and directed by Mark Jackson, this update on the 1665 satire on the King of England, enjoyed by early American Puritans, parodies pious outward behavior as another form of theatre (Tebow, anyone?) $18-$27. Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm.

Sun 5pm. Extended thru Jan. 29. 1901 Ashby Ave. Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org You know the way to San Jose, and I’m pretty sure I can navigate my way there, with some help from a GPS and Google Maps.

West Side Story’s national touring company brings the vibrant new version of one of the greatest, if not the greatest musical of all time. And, they’ve Peking Acrobats been traveling all across the country via New York; talk about distance! If you missed their San Francisco visit, it’s worth the trip. (Before or after, stop by one of San Jose’s gay bars, or the Watergarden, to meet your own hot Jet or Shark!) $20-$82. TueThu 7:30pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Also Sat 2pm, Sun 1pm & 6:30pm. Thru Jan. 22. 255 Almaden Blvd. San Jose. (408) 792-4131. www.broadwaysanjose.com For more far-flung arts events, see the always-expanded online version of Out & About on www.ebar.com

11th annual comedy festival includes films, stand-up panels, and celebrity-filled hilarity. Opening night includes Rifftrax night of the Shorts III: The Search for Schlock with Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett, David Cross and others (8pm, Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St.);. Eddie Izard tribute (Jan 25, 8pm, Palace of Fine Arts); plus lots of other fun events. Thru Feb 4. www.sfsketchfest.com

True West @ Boxcar Theatre Gritty drama of battling brothers; the first of four Sam Shepard plays the company will perform in repertory thru April 26. True West thru April 7. $15 (preview), $25-$35, or $85-$120 full pass. 505 Natoma St. 9672227. www.boxcartheatre.org

Fri 20>>

Thu 19>> Christopher Maltman @ Herbst Theatre Talented baritone, with pianist Malcolm Martineau, performs a program of works

by Fauré, Schumann, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Hahn, Schubert and Mahler. $38$68. 8pm. 401 Van Ness Ave. 392-2545. www.sfperformances.org

Dave Barry, Alan Zweibel @ Commonwealth Club Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist and former Saturday Night Live writer share their humorous take on the world as depicted in their new comic novel Lunatics, about crazed soccer parents. $7-$30. 6pm. 595 Market St. 597-6705. www.commonwealthclub.org

Dean Moss @ YBCA Forum Nameless Forest, a bold, strange, sexy performance-dance work, with a dozen audience members selected to be part of the show. $5-$25. 8pm. Thru Jan. 21.

Special Smart Night Out Jan 21, with preshow dinner and post-show discussions ($35-$40; 6pm). Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Forum, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Humor Abuse @ A.C.T. American Conservatory Theatre presents Pickle Family Circus veteran Lorenzo Pisoni’s autobiographical solo show about growing

John Stanley @ Books Inc. Opera Plaza Veteran SF Chronicle writer and author of The Gang That Shot Up Hollywood discusses his book, about celebrity encounters. 7pm. 601 Van Ness Ave. 776-1111. www.booksinc.net

Machine @ The Crucible, Oakland New music, fire and theatre opera from the fire arts nonprofit; written, conceived and directed by Mark Streshinsky; based on a short story by science fiction author Derek J. Goodman about industrial workers serving an evil master. $45-$65. Jan 11-14, 18-21. 8:30pm. Closing Night Gala Jan 21 includes drinks, food, cast champagne toast; $150. 6:30. Show 8:30pm. 1260 7th St. (510) 444-0919. www.thecrucible.org

Marcus Shelby Quartet @ George’s Nightclub, San Rafael Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martun Luther King, Jr., a concert of jazz music. $12-$15. 9pm. 842 Fourth St., San Rafael.

226-0262. www.georgesnightclub.com

Red Desert @ YBCA Screening Room Michelangelo Antonioni’s panoramic film about contemporary alienation includes

performance by Miss Trannyshack Star Search 2011 Rotissary Ethnicity Jackson Houston-Ross, and the Ethel Merman Experience. $15. 9:30pm-3am. 375 11th St. www.Trannyshack.com www.dnalounge.com

Concrete Blonde @ Bimbo’s

A Wintry Mix @ CounterPulse

David Berkeley @ Subterranean Arthouse, Berkeley

New dances by Catherine Marie Davalos, Shaunna Vella and Rogelio Lopez. $16-$18.

8pm. Also Jan. 21. 1310 Mission St. at 9th.

626-2060. www.counterpulse.org

Popular local singer-songwriter performs.

8pm. 2179 Bancroft Way. www.subterraneanarthouse.org

Sat 21>> Aftermath @ Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto West Coast premiere of Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s docu-drama style play about the fall of Iraq. $20-$29. 8pm. Thru Jan 22 (2:30pm). 1305 Middlefield Road.

(650) 329-0891. www.paplayers.org

Thu 19

Veteran pop-rock band performs, with special guests, including David J of Bauhaus and Love & Rockets. $18-$25. 8pm. 1025 Columbus Ave. 474-0365. www.bimbos365club.com

Eco Ensemble @ Hertz Hall, Berkeley Contemporary music ensemble performs new original works. $30. 8pm. (Also Feb. 11 & March 24). UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way at College Ave. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

Food Stories @ Z Space John Fisher directs Word for Word theatre company in performances of two short stories; satirist T.C. Boyle’s “Sorry Fugu” and Alice McDermott’s “Enough.” $20$40. Wed & Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Feb. 5. 450 Florida St. (800) 838-3006. www.zspace.org

Arcadia @ Live Oak Theatre, Berkeley

Ghost Light @ Berkeley Repertory

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley perform Tom Stoppard’s intriguing mystery/history play about love, desire, Lord Byron and landscape architecture. $12-$15. Fri & Sat 8pm.

Sun 2pm. Thru Feb 18. 1301 Shattuck Ave. 510) 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org

World premiere of Jonathan Moscone and Tony Taccone’s haunting fictional drama based on the assassination of San Francisco mayor George Moscone. $15$73. Tue-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Feb 19. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Company C Ballet @ Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek

The Kipling Hotel @ The Marsh Berkeley

Local contemporary ballet company performs works by Charles Anderson, set to music by Ornette Coleman, Ben Johnston, Jon Hassel and Kevin Volans. $23-$45. Jan 20, 8pm.

Jan 21, 3pm & 8pm. 1601 Civic Drive. (925) 943-7469. www.lesherartscenter.org

The Drowsy Chaperone @ GK Hardt Theatre, Santa Rosa 6th Street Playhouse’s production of the musical romp and Tony-winning broadway hit. $15-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Feb 5. 52 West 6th St., Santa Rosa. (707) 523-4185. www.6thStreetPlayhouse.com

Future Motive Power @ The Mint Mugwumpin’s new immersive theatre production, staged in vault of the fascinating Old Mint, about eccentric inventor Nikola Tesla. $15-$30. Fri-Sun 8pm. Thru Jan 29. 88 5th St. at Mission. www.mugwumpin.org

Howard Hawks: The Measure of Man @ Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley Film series showcasing the Hollywood director of classics ( Dawn Patrol, His Girl Friday, Barbary Coast and more). Thru Feb 28. $5.50-$13.50. various times and dates.

2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 6421412. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

Ise Lyfe @ The Rrazz Room HBO Def Jam poet and hip hop singer performs. $20-$30. 10pm. Also Jan 21. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. 394-1189. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Marga Gomez @ The Marsh up in a circus family. $10-$85. 8pm. Tue-Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Feb. 5. 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

▼

Everyone’s favorite lesbian Latina comic returns with her new hit solo show Not Getting Any Younger. $15-$35. Fri 8pm.

Sat 5pm & 8:30pm. Thru Feb 25. Studio Theater, 1062 Valencia St. at 22nd. 2823055. www.margagomez.com

Don Reed’s solo show about his adventures in Hollywood and as a waiter in a retirement hotel. $20-$50. Sat 8:30, Sun 7pm.

Thru Feb 12. TheaterStage, 2120 Allston Way. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Cabaret @ Fort Mason New local production of the Tonywinning Cander/Ebb musical based on gay writer Christopher Isherwood’s stories about pre-Nazi Berlin; with an up-close cabaret-style setting, like the recent Broadway revival. $25-$45. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Sun 7pm. Thru Feb 19. 381-1638.

Young Performers Theater, Bldg C, 3rd floor. 381-1638. www.CabaretSFwordpress.com

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi Musical comedy revue, now in its 35th year, with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. Reg: $25-$130. Wed, Thu, Fri at 8pm. Sat 6:30, 9:30pm. Sun 2pm, 5pm.

(Beer/wine served; cash only). 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 4214222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Classical Recitals @ SF Conservatory of Music Student and faculty performances. Jan 21, 8pm: Bach Goldberg Variations; Rachmaninoff Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 36. Jan 23, 8pm: All-J.S. Bach program. Jan. 24, 7pm: violin students’ master class. Jan 26, 7:30pm: Zoran Dukic’s guitar master class. Jan 26, 7:30pm: vocal excerpts from Handel’s Agrippina.

Free. 50 Oak St. 503-6265. www.sfcm.edu

Matter + Spirit @ de Young Museum The Sculpture of Stephen De Staebler, whose figurative clay work draws inspiration from primitive cultures and artifacts.

Thru April 22. Also, Masters of Venice: Renaissance Painters of Passion and Power from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Dolls and Masks thru Feb. 26. The Art of the Anatolian Kilim: Highlights from the McCoy Jones Collection thru June 10. Bernini’s Medusa thru February 19. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. 7503600. www.famsf.org

Why Paint a Landscape? @ ArtZone Opening reception for a group exhibit of contemporary landscapes; also, in the side room, Jane Fisher’s contemporary portraits. 5pm-8pm. Thru Feb 26. Wed-Sun 12pm-6pm. 461 Valencia St. at 15th. 4418680. www.artzone461.com

The Wild Bride @ Berkeley Repertory Theatre Touring production of Kneehigh Theatre Company’s acclaimed Broadway show with music and dance that blends fairy tale dreams and humorous yet heartbreaking realities. $27-$82. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm.

Wed 7pm (Dec 7, at 8pm). Sat & Sun 2pm.

Sun 7pm. Extended thru Jan 22. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2972. www.berkeleyrep.org

Fri 20

New Fire @ Brava Theatre Cherrie Moraga’s play follows the sacred geography of indigenous American ancestors to tell a past-modern story of rupture and return. $10-$30. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. 2781 24th St. 647-2822. Thru Jan 29. www.brava.org

Noir City X @ Castro Theatre It’s private dicks and provocative dames in classic and B-movies full of crime, betrayal, gals and guns at the 10th anniversary film festival, with super special guest star Angie Dickinson. Thru Jan 29. www.noircity.com www.castrotheatre.com

Stephen Kladder @ Castro Country Club Exhibit of the artist’s portrait paintings at the LGBT sober space. 2pm-3pm. Thru Feb 29.

4058 18th St. www.castrocountryclub.org

Trannyshack Star Search @ DNA Lounge 13th annual competition for the next “Big-Wig” of SF drag. Hosted by Heklina and Peaches Christ, with celebrity judges Precious Moments, Adrian Roberts, Cookie Dough, Lil’ Miss Hot Mess, Sasha Soprano, and Joshua J. Cook; featuring a step-down

The Gondoliers @ Novellus Theater Lamplighters Theatre revives its lavishly-costumed 2005 production of the Gilbert & Sullivan 1889 operetta romp about royal foibles, classism and mistaken identity. $15-$48. Jan 20 & 21, 8pm. Jan 21 & 22, 2pm. 701 Mission St. 978-2787. Also Jan 27 (8pm) 28 (2pm & 8pm) and 29 (2pm) at Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; 1601 Civic Drive at Locust St. (925) 943-7469. www.lamplighters.org

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Out&About >>

Sun 22>>

January 19-25, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Tue 24

California Dreaming @ Contemp. Jewish Museum Jewish Life in the Bay Area from the Gold Rush to the Present, an exhibit about the lives of historic Western American Jewish people, from Levi’s jeans and Ginsberg’s Howl to Gump’s and LGBT synagogues. Also, Houdini: Art and Magic. $5-$12. Thu-Tue 11am-5pm. 736 Mission St. at 3rd. 655-7800.

Thru Oct. 16, 2012. www.thecjm.org

Plastic Camera Show @ Rayko Photo Group exhibit of surprisingly good photos taken with surprisingly cheap cameras.

Thru March 6. Tue-Thu-10am-10pm. FriSun 10am-8pm. 428 Third St. 495-3773. www.raykophoto.com

Jonathan Poretz @ The Rrazz Room Classy Vegas-style crooner performs vintage jazz-pop hits. $29.50. 7pm. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. 394-1189. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Mon 23>> Collected @ Museum of the African Diaspora Subtitled Stories of Acquisition and Reclamation, this new exhibit displays more than 100 objects that help narrate the struggles and contributions of African Americans in California. Free-$12. Thru March 4. 685 Mission St. at 3rd. 358-7200. www.moadsf.org

Jimmy Kansau @ The Rrazz Room Swinging Latin American songbook as performed by the singer and his trio. $25.

8pm. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. 394-1189. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Marconi Calindas @ Magnet Colors of Understanding: A Tribute to Courage and Strength, an exhibit of the artist’s paintings. Thru Jan. 4122 18th St. at Castro. www.magnetsf.org

Sat 21

SanFranola @ Public Works

Ann Magnuson @ Yoshi’s, Oakland The legendary New York (now LA-based) performer who helped redefine the downtown scene shares a musical soiree of stories and songs. $25. 8pm.

Also Jan. 25. 510 Embarcadero West, Jack London Square, Oakland. (510) 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

on Marriage Equality. Less and More: the Design Ethos of Dieter Rams ; Thru Feb 20; and Sharon Lockhart’s Lunch Break, photos and installation of images of industrial workers. Other exhibits ongoing. Free-$18.

151 Third St. 357-4000. www.sfmoma.org

The Magic Flute @ Sundance Kabuki Cinemas Screening of a videotaped performance of San Francisco Opera’s recent production of the Mozart opera. $8.75-$11. 7pm. Also Jan 28, 10:30am. 1881 Post St. 346-3243. www. sfopera.com www.sundancecinemas.com

Matthew Martin @ The Rrazz Room Local veteran drag chanteuse returns with a tribute show, All Singing, All Dancing, All Dead! with hilarious impersonations of Judy Garland, Ann Miller, Peggy Lee and others.

2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. 3941189. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Queer Comic Artists @ Cartoon Art Museum Group exhibit of work by various popular LGBT comic artists. Free-$7. Thru March 4.

Reg hours Tue-Sun 11am-5pm. 655 Mission St. www.cartoonart.org

Wed 25>> Homophonic @ Martuni’s

Jefferson Starship @ The Rrazz Room

Monthly LGBT singer-songwriter showcase at the popular martini bar, with host Jeb Havens, featured guest Brent Calderwood (photo), plus Tawnee Kendall, Derek Schmidt and Leech Haven. No cover. 5pm7pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.brentcalderwood.com

Historic local band and rock legends perform an intimate show with special guests. $45. 8pm. Also Jan 26 & 27, 8pm; Jan 28 at 7pm & 9:30pm, Jan 29, 7pm. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. 394-1189. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Tue 24>> The Air We Breathe @ SF MOMA Group exhibit of works by 30 contemporary artists and eight poets who explore the issues of legalizing same-sex marriage.

Accompanying book will be on sale: The Air We Breathe: Artists and Poets Reflect

other media. Don’t miss Sunil Gupta’s alluring gay photo series Love, Undetectable and Sun City. Also, Super 8, experimental videos and films ( thru July 8). Also, What Suits Us, John-Mark Ikeda’s exploration of the iconic business suit. Also, Gina Osterloh’s Anonymous Front, a visual essay on physical blindness (thru April 8). Free-$7. Exhibit thru Jan 29. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Jesus in India @ Magic Theatre Lloyd Suh’s contemporary reimagining of the lost years of Jesus of Nazareth as a teen stoner’s vacation to the East. $30-$60.

Previews thru Feb 1 (open ing night). Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2:30pm. Thru Feb 19. Building D, Fort Mason Center, Marina Blvd at Buchanan. 441-8822. www.magictheatre.org

The Matter Within @ YBCA Fascinating new exhibit of contemporary Indian art; installations, sculptures and

Second annual festival of food, music and cultural connections between New Orleans and San Francisco, with DJ Brice Nice, Lagniappe Brass Band. No cover. 6pm. 161 Erie St. at Mission. www.sanfranola.com

Thu 26>> The Best of Times @ Alcazar Theatre Faith Prince and Jason Graae star in 42nd Street Moon’s production of The Jerry Herman Salon, a musical tribute to the gay Tony-winning Broadway compsoer lyricist. $70. 7pm. 650 Geary St. 255-8207. www.42ndstmoon.org

Best British TV Commercials @ YBCA Annual mini-film festival of the past year’s best funniest and most intriguing TV commercials from the U.K. $6-$8. 8pm. Thru Jan 29 (all 8pm). Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Comedy Bodega @ Esta Nocha The new LGBT and indie comic stand-up night’s hosted by “Mr. Gomez” (retired Telemundo extra and “associate” of comic Marga Gomez). 8pm-9:30pm. 3079 16th St. at Mission. www.comedybodega.com

David Richo @ Books Inc. Author of Coming Home to Who You Are: Discovering Your Natural Capacity for Love, Integrity and Compassion discusses his book. 7:30pm. 2275 Market St. 864-6777. www.booksinc.net

Get Lucky @ SOMArts Gallery The Culture of Chance, a group exhibit of multimedia art paying homage to artist John Cage’s 100th birthday. Thru Jan 26.

Tue-Fri 12pm-7pm. Sat 12pm-5pm. 934 Brannan St. www.somarts.org/getlucky/

Maharaja @ Asian Art Museum The Splendor of India’s Royal Courts, an expansive exhibit showcasing textiles, jewels and items from the heyday of the early Indian empires. Also, Sanjay Patel’s Deities, Demons and Dudes with ‘Staches: Indian Avatars ; Tateuchi Thematic Gallery, 2nd floor.. $7-$17. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. Thu til 9pm. Thru April 8, 2012. 200 Larkin St. 581-3500. www.asianart.org

Queer Ancestors @ LGBT Center Opening reception for a group exhibit of local artists’ (Erika Vivianna Céspedes, Jeffrey Cheung, Ángel Espinoza, A. Lolade Gbadebo, Alan Guttirez, Haruka Kelley, Justin Time, Brandon Middleton, Brianne Moore, Eva Ovalle, and Anna Robinson ) portraits and interpretive art about famous LGBT leaders. 7pm-9pm. thru Feb 16.

1800 Market St. www.sfcenter.org

The Science of Cocktails @ Exploratorium Discover the chemistry behind tasty cocktails while enjoying them at this fundraiser for the popular interactive science museum. $120-$185. 7:30-11pm. Palace of Fine Arts, 3601 Lyon St. 561-0360. www.exploratorium.edu

Our Vast Queer Past @ GLBT History Museum

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See the fascinating exhibit from the GLBT Historical Society, with a wide array of rare historic items on display. New mini-exhibit focuses on the legacy of activist and performer Jose Sarria. Free for members-$5.

Wed-Sat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Fri 20 The Story of My Life @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Neil Bartram and Brian Hill’s new melodic musical comedy about gay best friends and the personal cost of success. $22-$36. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Feb. 26. 25 Van Ness Ave. at Market, lower level. www.nctcsf.org

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

<< Film

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 19-25, 2012

▼

Extremely tragic & incredibly cloying

by David Lamble

I

n the days following “the worst day,” when the planes crashed into the Towers, a nine-year-old boy summons the courage to climb out from under his bed by creating an obsessively elaborate game. Oskar Schell will visit every person in the New York City phone book with the last name Black. He figures that one of these 472 souls will know what lock is opened by a mysterious key Oskar found among his dead Dad’s effects. Oskar’s painfully slow journey (he refuses at first to take the subway because public transportation makes him panicky) is eventually invigorated by an odd companion, an elderly mute man, his grandmother’s lodger, who he suspects to be his long-missing grandfather.

Your ability to buy into the big new surreal 9/11 film Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close may depend on how much you enjoy being held hostage by a nine-yearold whiff of a lad. Despite TV ads proclaiming big star power – Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright and Max von Sydow, no less – this intriguing, irritating, cloying but oddly important new film from British director Stephen Daldry rests squarely on the tiny shoulders

Director Stephen Daldry’s intriguing, irritating but oddly important new film rests squarely on the tiny shoulders of its young leading man Thomas Horn. of one Thomas Horn. Discovered on TV’s Jeopardy’s “Kids’ Week,” the 14-year-old Oakland resident allows his Oskar Schell to display the contradictory traits of Culkin brothers Rory and Macaulay: Rory’s permanently deferred puberty and Mac’s ability to charm or overwhelm the adults in his path.

Adapted by Eric Roth from Jonathan Safran Foer’s puzzle-book postmodern novel, the movie has many East Coast critics apoplectic for appropriating sacred 9/11 imagery and mythology in the service of a Hollywood feel-good ending. Horn’s impersonation of a boy who prays that his Dad left him one final precious gift carries heartbreaking resonance for a legion

of premature orphans. The picture’s sweet spot is the frisky pre-9/11 hi-jinks with Oskar’s pop. Hanks is rumored to be a great real-life dad, an impression reinforced by his playful scenes coaxing joy from a fearful boy. Otherwise the movie soars in those odd-couple beats between Oskar and the legendary von Sydow as the codger who chooses not to speak. The old man reconciles Oskar to the uncertainties of public transport, and with his cryptic notes sort of prepares the boy for the possibility that his search may come up empty.

Once Dad and Grandpa exit the screen, Horn’s Oskar starts to feel a little one-note. Hectoring nine-yearolds are not movie comfort-food.▼

Thomas Horn is on a mission for a final gift from his late father in director Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.

Maggie’s farm

by David Lamble

Q

ueer filmgoers who don’t want to miss one of the award season’s most trenchant social commentaries should not neglect Meryl Streep’s astonishing impersonation of Tory “dragon lady” Margaret Thatcher in the smart and sassy The Iron Lady.

Don’t let political correctness keep

you from catching the story of an old enemy who stuck to her principles as resolutely and successfully as we have stuck to ours. “If you make the tough decisions, people will hate you today and thank you tomorrow.”

When first we glimpse her, Baroness Margaret Thatcher is an old widow seemingly out of her mind who has temporarily given

her minders the slip, wobbling somewhat unsteadily to the corner grocery to buy a pint of milk.

Margaret is appalled at the price of milk, and even more upset at the rude elbowing she gets from the store’s male customers, some of whom probably supported her.

Back home she receives cheeky digs from the ghost of her long-dead hubby, Dennis (a mordantly funny Jim Broadbent).

While The Iron Lady’s director Phyllida Lloyd and screenwriter Abi Morgan make minimal mention of the Thatcher/Reagan partnership (probably for the lack of an actor whose Reagan could match Streep’s Thatcher), those in the know will relish a scene where the future PM is getting cosmetic advice from reps of the same ad agency who would package Reagan.

“One simply must make you look and sound like the leader you could be. That hat has to go, and the pearls will have to go. You look like a Tory wife, and we already have her vote.

People don’t want to be hectored by a woman.”

“For some, electing me is imagining being led into battle by their chambermaid.”

“Let us deal with the surface stuff, and you just be yourself.”

“I may lose the hat, but the pearls were a gift from my husband and are non-negotiable!”

Meryl Streep is tough as nails as British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in director Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady.

For those who thought Thatcher wore the pants in the “special relationship,” there is a pungent confrontation with Reagan’s Secretary of State, Al “I’m in Charge” Haig. At 10 Downing Street to argue Margaret out of her “mad” impulse to wrest the Falkland Islands back after a brutal invasion by the Argentine Junta, Haig misjudges his hostess.

“With all due respect, if one has been to war –” “With all due respect, I have done battle every single day of my life.

Men always underestimated me.

Now, shall I be Mother? Tea, Al? How do you take your tea, black or white?”

There’s no Thatcher beating up Billy Elliot’s coal-miner dad here.

This is class war among the Tories,

as Thatcher misses few chances to humiliate the old Etonians in her cabinet. In an outrageous moment that could have been hatched by the Pythons, Margaret embarrasses a colleague, Michael Hezeltine, for his poor penmanship and grammar – a naughty schoolboy with his pants down. The old boys soon bite back. “She’s behaved appallingly. I wouldn’t treat my gamekeeper like that!”

As startling as the film’s timewarping structure are scenes of Thatcher literally at war – a trusted aide is murdered by an IRA bomb almost in front of her eyes, and she and Dennis just escape a huge explosion in their hotel suite. Streep has called her latest and possibly greatest creation, “a Lear for girls.”▼

▼

Film >>

January 19-25, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Watch your back!

‘Noir City X’ takes over the Castro Theatre

by Tavo Amador

T

Siegel helmed. Marvin is doublecrossed and left for dead on Alcatraz in Point Blank (67), but he recovers.

Is he out for revenge? Dickinson smolders. With a pre-Archie Bunker Carroll O’Conner. John Boorman directed from Donald Westlake’s novel. Riveting and unusual. (Sat., 1/21, evenings) Lovely Gene Tierney is Laura (1944), a peerlessly elegant mystery.

Even though she’s supposed to be dead, detective Dana Andrews falls under her spell. Others enamored of her include Clifton Webb, unforgettable as acidic columnist Waldo Lydecker, one of the screen’s earliest and finest metrosexuals; and his rival metrosexual, Laura’s fiancé Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price).

Judith Anderson is her aunt, who, with Laura missing, has her own plans for Shelby – she can afford him.

Set in tony Manhattan apartments with stylishly dressed suspects.

Otto Preminger’s memorable

hese dark, cold nights provide a perfect backdrop for Noir City X, Eddie Muller’s 10th annual San Francisco Film Noir Festival, playing the Castro Theatre Jan. 2029. This year’s special guest is Angie Dickinson, appearing at the Castro on Saturday evening, Jan. 21, to talk about her career.

San Francisco offers a Dark Passage (1947) to Humphrey Bogart, who, wrongly convicted of murdering his wife, escapes from San Quentin. The audience doesn’t see his face until he has plastic surgery, and he looks like – Humphrey Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart star in director Delmer Daves’ Bogart! Lauren Bacall, ravishing, Dark Passage: the audience only sees his face post-plastic surgery. sympathetic, and resourceful, helps him prove his innocence. With bitchy Agnes Moorehead, whose death From Vera Caspary’s flawless scene is unforgettable. Delmer Daves novel. Caspary wrote Bedelia (46), directed. Wonderful location shots. filmed in England with Margaret Changing her identify, Valentina Lockwood as a soignée, deadly Cortese moves into The House on female. Lance Comfort directed Telegraph Hill (51), this rarity. (Sun., 1/22, only to face unforeseen matinee and evening) danger. With Richard Walking along the Basehart. Directed by dark, dangerous docks Robert Wise. Many o of Buenos Aires, suave wonderful shots of the G George Macready city that used to be. p picks up rough, butch (Fri., 1/20, evenings) G Glenn Ford and brings In Okay, America h him home. All is well (1932), Lew Ayres b between them until plays a Walter R Rita Hayworth’s Gilda Winchell-type radio ((1946) spoils their reporter investigating rromance. “There never a kidnapping that w was a woman like Gilda!” implicates powerful aaccurately proclaimed elected officials. Tay th the ads.

Hayworth Garnett directed this cconfirmed her Love rarely seen pre-code G Goddess image dancing exposé of the media, to “Amoro Mio” and politics and crime. eerotically suggesting a Louis Calhern and st striptease while singing Edward Arnold are ““Put the Blame on Mane.”

Afraid To Talk (32, aka M Marion Parsennet’s Mer r y-Go-Round), sc screenplay (with another pre-code u uncredited help from Ben look at deadly urban H Hecht) somehow evaded politics. (Sat., 1/21, th the censors. Charles matinees) V Vidor directed, stylishly.

The Killers (1964), Je Jean Louis designed a remake of the 1946 H Hayworth’s memorable classic, was planned go gowns. Hayworth and for television until Fo Ford reunited for The network executives Rit M Money Trap (65), a Rita Hayworth H th iis a woman lik like no other th iin di director t balked at the violence, Charles Vidor’s Gilda: ‘Put the Blame on Mame!’ touching homage to the so it was released 1940s and their youth. in theatres.

Lee With Elke Sommer, Marvin and Clu Joseph Cotton, and a preGallagher wonder why victim John directorial debut. Glorious OscarFantasy Island Ricardo Montalban.

Cassavetes calmly faces death. Angie winning cinematography by Joseph Directed by Burt Kennedy. (Mon., Dickinson is the femme fatale, and LaShelle. Four other Academy 1/23, evening) an atypically hard Ronald Reagan, Award nominations included Best Rex Harrison thinks beautiful in his last movie role, is the arctic Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, wife Linda Darnell is being mastermind behind the evil. Based Best Supporting Actor (Webb), and Unfaithfully Yours (1948), Preston on Hemingway’s short story. Don Best Set Design/Art Decoration.

Sturges’ witty riff on infidelity. He’s a

symphony conductor who fantasizes about killing her while leading the orchestra. Jack Carson is The Good Humor Man (50), hopelessly involved in murder. Frank Tashlin’s screenplay turns unexpectedly funny. With a pre-Peter Gunn Lola Albright. Directed by Lloyd Bacon.

(Tues., 1/24, evening) House of Bamboo (1955) is set in post-WWII Tokyo with Robert Ryan and a pre-Untouchables Robert Stack battling Japan’s frightening Yakuza hoods. With Sessue Hayakawa.

As a teenager, Tolly Devlin (Cliff Robertson) saw his father get murdered in Underworld, USA (61). Two decades later, he plans his revenge. Both films directed by noir master Sam Fuller. (Wed., 1/25, evening) More next week.▼

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