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Vol. 44 • No. 4 • January 23-29, 2014

Brown declares drought in CA Rick Gerharter

Larry Brinkin, right, walked into court Tuesday accompanied by his husband, Wood Massi.

Brinkin pleads guilty by Seth Hemmelgarn

ay rights pioneer Larry Brinkin is expected to serve six months in jail after pleading guilty this week to felony possession of child pornography. Brinkin, 67, who was a longtime staffer at San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission, quietly entered his plea Tuesday, January 21 before San Francisco Superior Court Judge Brendan Conroy. At his sentencing March 5, Brinkin is expected to be ordered to serve five years of probation, which would begin with six months in jail and be followed by six months of home detention with a monitoring bracelet. Brinkin must also register as a sex offender for life. Prosecutors had charged Brinkin with two counts of distributing child pornography and four counts of possession of child pornography. The remaining charges were dismissed Tuesday. San Francisco police initially arrested Brinkin on child pornography-related charges in June 2012. He quickly posted bail and was released from custody on those charges. Following further investigation by police at the request of the district attorney’s office, he surrendered to police in September 2012 and bailed out of custody shortly thereafter. Assistant District Attorney Leslie Cogan has said that there were “numerous items of photographs as well as videos” involved in the case, and that Brinkin’s activity had gone back to October 2011. Brinkin, who was a compliance officer for the Human Rights Commission for more than two decades before he retired in 2010, declined to comment before his court appearance Tuesday. His husband, Wood Massi, accompanied him, as he has for numerous hearings since 2012. After the hearing, Randy Knox, Brinkin’s attorney, said that Brinkin is “genuinely remorseful” and has a “much greater understanding of the damage that child pornography inflicts.” “Larry is a wonderful, kind, sensitive human being who made a terrible mistake,” See page 6 >>

Rick Gerharter

Governor Jerry Brown points to this year’s lack of rainfall at a news conference in San Francisco.

by Cynthia Laird

GBTs will likely see signs urging water conservation in area gyms and sex clubs in the wake of California Governor Jerry Brown declaring a drought state of emergency. With the state facing water shortfalls in the driest year in recorded state history, Brown held a news conference in San Fran-

cisco to make the official declaration and to urge all citizens to voluntarily conserve 20 percent of their water use. Brown said he was asking all state residents to help, whether they live in rural or urban areas. “Hopefully it will rain eventually but we have to do our part,” Brown said at the packed January 17 news conference at his

office in the State Building. The governor said the conservation effort was voluntary, for now, but that the state’s millions of residents would be affected. “From the Mexican border to the Oregon border there are a lot of consumers and a lot of lawns,” the governor said. “It’s important to awaken all Californians to the serious matter of drought and the lack of rain,” he added. According to Brown’s declaration, the state’s water supplies have dipped to alarming levels. Snowpack in the mountains, a leading indicator of drought conditions, is approximately 20 percent of the normal average for this time of year. Additionally, the state’s largest reservoirs have very low water levels for this time of year and the major river systems, including the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, have significantly reduced water flows. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, much of the state, including the Bay Area, is in “extreme” drought conditions. In recent weeks, weather forecasters have blamed the lack of precipitation on a high pressure ridge off the coast. Forecasting models show little in the way of winter storms on the horizon. See page 14 >>

Poz founder Strub pens memoir by Matthew S. Bajko

ean Strub, the founder of Poz magazine, occupied a unique perch that bisected political circles, gay high society, and activist groups throughout the early years of the AIDS epidemic in America. He has documented how his personal and professional spheres interconnected as he moved from the Midwest to first Washington, D.C. and later New York and rural Pennsylvania in his fascinating new memoir Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS and Survival (Scribner, January 2014). “About three years ago I seriously began working on the book. I had actually resisted writing this kind of thing about the epidemic,” Strub, 55, told the Bay Area Reporter in a phone interview ahead of his visit to the Bay Area next week to promote the book. He changed his mind after being interviewed by a New York Times reporter about his life – Strub was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 – for a story about long-term survival with the virus. “That history is not well documented and certainly isn’t well known,” said Strub, who with his partner, Xavier Morales, splits his time between New York and the couple’s home in Milford, Pennsylvania. “That was when I started feeling more of a need and urgency to write all this.” The Iowa native details how, early in his

Courtesy seanstrub.com

Author Sean Strub is promoting his new memoir.

youth, he discovered a love for politics and landed himself a job working a Senate elevator in the U.S. Capitol during his freshman year at Georgetown. He recounts being invited to a dinner party one night where he befriended the gay playwright Tennessee Williams and later enlisted his help for the first fundraising appeal on behalf of the newly formed Human Rights Campaign Fund. His entrée to a political career came from

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Alan Baron, whose insidery newsletter The Baron Reporter was the must-read publication of its day. From another mentor, Roger Craver, Strub quickly learned he had a knack for direct-marketing and fundraising appeals. By 1979 he had moved to Manhattan to enroll at Columbia and began frequenting gay bars, bathhouses, and sex clubs, something he avoided doing while in Washington, D.C. For him and many of his young gay friends, “bathhouses were an important part of life,” he writes. The sexual mores adopted by many gay men as a sign of sexual liberation, however, “created the perfect storm” for HIV to spread so rapidly, writes Strub. “The lack of knowledge about gay men’s sexual health and access to health care that respected gay sexuality compounded the problem.” Strub became active with the New York Political Action Committee, hung out at the offices of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, and befriended the doormen of famed dance club Studio 54 to gain free admission. In October 1980 he ended up in the hospital due to contracting hepatitis B and swelling in his lymph nodes. Bedridden for months, he only realized years later that his ailments in his glands likely signaled he had contracted HIV. Later that year he happened to walk by the Dakota apartment building shortly after John Lennon was shot and witnessed his being put See page 13 >>

<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

Skirt-burning defendant to stay in adult court by Seth Hemmelgarn

judge in Oakland last week ruled that the teenager who allegedly burned the skirt of a gender non-conforming teen should remain in adult court. At a hearing Thursday, January 16 in Alameda County Superior Court, Judge J. Richard Couzens denied

attorney William Du Bois’s request for his client, Richard Allen Thomas, 16, to be charged as a juvenile. Thomas is accused of setting fire to the skirt of Sasha Fleischman, 18, November 4 as they rode an AC Transit bus in Oakland. Fleischman suffered severe burns in the incident. The district attorney’s office has

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charged Thomas with aggravated mayhem and assault resulting in serious bodily injury. Each count carries a hate crime enhancement. If convicted, he could face life in prison. Thomas, who’s been in custody since shortly after the incident, is expected to enter a plea Thursday, January 23. Both Fleischman and Thomas are of Oakland. Debra Crandall, 60, Fleischman’s mother, said in a phone interview about the ruling, “I’m sad that’s what they’ve chosen to do, but we’ve talked with the DA. They seem to feel like this is the right way to go with it. We’re kind of torn ... to put a 16-year-old kid away for life seems really harsh.” Crandall added, “I feel like perhaps the DA’s office must have information they can’t give us completely.” Du Bois has indicated Thomas

Sasha Fleischman in an undated photo

has a criminal history, but details are confidential because he’s a juvenile. Crandall said based on informa-

tion from the DA’s office, “the sentencing is where there may be some leeway.” Fleischman, who wasn’t available Friday for an interview, is doing “pretty good,” said Crandall. “They’re back at school, but there’s still some healing that has to be done,” she said. As far as the family is aware, “the surgeries are done, it’s just the skin grafts needing to heal.” Du Bois hasn’t disputed that Thomas set fire to Fleischman but has said, “As far as I can tell,” the incident “was the result of a juvenile prank that went horribly wrong.” He’s also said members of Thomas’s family are gay and “he doesn’t have a homophobic bone in his body.” Sasha Fleischman prefers “they,” “them,” and “their,” when people refer to them in the third person, according to Karl Fleischman, their father.t

Agencies host health fair for HIV-positive older men by Matthew S. Bajko

number of local programs for HIV-positive men age 50 and older are hosting a wellness fair this weekend as demand for services targeted to this demographic continues to grow. The daylong event Sunday, January 26 at Magnet, the gay men’s health center in the Castro, will feature a variety of seminars focusing on such topics as aging and dermatology, depression and post-traumatic stress, memory and cognitive issues, dental health, and medications. Attendees will also be able to meet with providers and representatives from local agencies about the services they offer. The lead sponsors are the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, of which Magnet is a part; the Silver Project at 360: The Positive Care Center at UCSF; and Let’s Kick ASS, which stands for AIDS Survivor Syndrome.

Dr. Malcolm John, director of 360: The Positive Care Center at UCSF, said the event is meant to “spread the word about aging in general” and to highlight the Silver Project he oversees. The research study is open to HIV-positive men over 50 and older who receive their health care through UCSF. In 2010 the California HIV/AIDS Research Program of the University of California awarded grants totaling $6.4 million to five California health care provider organizations to study a new model of health care delivery designed to improve the quality of care and reduce costs for people with HIV/AIDS. The first patient-centered medical home research project in the United States focused on people with HIV/AIDS, the grant program is focused on how to create a community-based system of care, treatment, prevention, and support services that provides coordinated, high quality, client-centered services. The aim of the Silver Project is to test new models of integrated HIV and aging care services to address the complex needs of persons 50 years and older living with HIV. It is a collaborative effort between the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the UCSF Positive Health Program at San Francisco General Hospital, and 360: The Positive Care Center at UCSF. “The reality is 1.15 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV and getting older with HIV. We need to understand the issues in the population,” said John. The UCSF center has enrolled more than 150 of its patients into the project, while the SF General program has signed up 180. It will be seeking to sign up additional participants this summer or early fall; those men who are patients at UCSF interested in enrolling will be able to sign up during the wellness fair. Once enrolled the participants undergo a baseline assessment to determine the severity of their health needs. The questions cover routine topics like physical and mental health, oral health, and sexual health, but also include such things as access to food, risk for falling, and past sexual abuse.

Courtesy UCSF

Dr. Malcolm John

“All those issues need to be factored in,” said John. Depending on their assessment results, the participants are then divided into three groups. Those doing relatively well are placed in the wellness group and are given basic services. The others are placed either in the moderate or intensive groups and receive more specialized attention. Their care providers will meet weekly, said John, to determine “what are their needs above and beyond routine care maintenance.” Based on the preliminary findings from the current Silver Project participants, John said, “What we saw is a need for medical programs that integrate aging with HIV care.” He acknowledged that it requires “a lot of work to integrate into our medical model and make this part of routine annual care.” In the coming months the Silver Project will begin testing two strategies with certain cohorts of participants that are dealing with depression and issues of loneliness and isolation. One is a peer-to-peer support group that the Shanti Project is assisting with; the other is a home-based, individualized visit with a psychiatrist. “For things like loneliness and isolation, those are things not well characterized. We don’t have the interventions to affectively address that for patients,” said John.t The wellness fair is free and open to the public. Food and light refreshments will be provided. It runs from 1 to 5 p.m., Sunday, January 26 at Magnet, 4122 18th Street, San Francisco. To RSVP online visit http://tinyurl.com/ mllnczn.

Community News>>

t Obesity tops concerns in South Bay health report

January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

were homeless and the high rate of smoking, echoing other national and international reports.

Homelessness

Jo-Lynn Otto

Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager, left, talked with nowretired county Health Officer Dr. Marty Fenstersheib when the LGBT health survey started last fall.

by Heather Cassell

anta Clara County released the results of its first-ever countywide LGBT health survey that show chronic physical health issues and obesity top the list of concerns. The 120-page report, “Status of LGBTQ Health: Santa Clara County, California 2013,” was released January 10 and found that more than one-third of the county’s estimated 47,000 LGBT residents were diagnosed with chronic physical health issues and 1 in 4 are obese, according to the report. The county’s LGBT residents make up about 4 percent of the overall population. Obesity was found to be highest among lesbians and older, white, and Latino individuals. Challenges to accessing services due to economic limitations were particularly unique among senior and transgender LGBTs, the report revealed. Furthermore, the report shined a light on hidden issues within the county, such as social acceptance, anti-LGBT violence, and intimate partner violence. “It’s the very first time that we have this type of information about the LGBT community,” said Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager. Yeager, who is gay and just stepped down as board president, also cochaired the survey as a part of his health plan outlined in his State of the County address last January. Yeager was joined by two other gay community leaders, Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, the former health officer of the county’s public health department, and Fredrick Ferrer, CEO

of the Health Trust. The Health Trust is the largest provider of non-medical services to low-income individuals living with HIV/AIDS. The organization, which serves more than 900 clients, also provides other health-related programs to the general population in Santa Clara County. Dr. Sara Cody, the county’s new health officer, agreed with Yeager, pointing out that not many cities have undertaken examining their LGBT populations’ health. “It was hard. There wasn’t really a roadmap,” said Cody, an ally who inherited overseeing the report after Fenstersheib, a 30-year veteran of the county’s public health department, retired in September 2013. She was pleased by the results after the broad survey was quickly produced with a great amount of community support last fall. The holistic approach to the community’s health was “most helpful and most unique, but like many of these first tries probably raises more questions than answers,” Cody said. Yeager plans on meeting with county department heads sometime in February to begin utilizing the information in the report to improve health and social services to the South Bay’s LGBT community, he said. “It shows that the needs in our community are very diverse and very critical and ... government is not meeting all of those needs,” said Yeager. “We need to make sure that happens.” Beyond the executive summary county authorities and experts said that they were surprised by the number of LGBT individuals who

“There are also more homeless LGBT people than compared to the rest of the population,” said Cody. Homeless LGBT adults made up 10 percent of the population for individuals over the age of 25 and 29 percent of queer youth were homeless, according to the report. Data was taken from Santa Clara County’s Homeless Census and Survey for 2013, which included sexual orientation as a question for the first time last year, and homeless LGBT respondents to the health survey. “We need to fix the alarming high rate of LGBTQ people who are homeless,” said Yeager, who wants to make sure that the outreach efforts and people who work with the homeless are culturally sensitive to LGBT homeless issues. “Making sure that the outreach that we do, when we go out to some of the encampments or work with homeless people, that there is an awareness that many of them will be gay and lesbian and have different needs.” The report, along with last year’s homeless census, highlighted “they CharlesSpiegel_2x2_0414 don’t always feel like they are getting the correct services or that there may be discrimination taking place,” said Yeager.

Getting to the unknown

The online survey, conducted in the fall of 2013, was completed by more than 1,100 people. Additionally, officials had 17 small group discussions, two community conversations, and individual interviews with 27 key people. It was the first time that research looked beyond HIV/ AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases that have dominated many studies in the LGBT community. A separate health survey examining LGBTQ youth is currently in progress, officials said. Officials

couldn’t provide information about when they anticipated the survey, which was extended into 2014, would be completed and the results would be available. Researchers from the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, working with Resource Development Associates, a research firm in Oakland, cast a wide net exploring various health issues, such as general health care, HIV/AIDS and sexual health, substance abuse, mental See page 16 >>

Smoking

The county’s health survey revealed that the number of South Bay’s LGBT smokers is three times higher than the number of heterosexual residents who light up, according to the report. Of greater concern is that the county’s LGBT smokers light up at a slightly higher rate than the national LGBT smoking population, according to research from www.smokefree.gov, the B.A.R. reported last week. The report showed that the county’s largest population of smokers is in the prime of their life, age 25 to 54, and solidly middle class earning $40,000 to $74,999, according to the report. “We need to redouble our efforts,” said Yeager, a former smoker who quit 10 years ago. He’s working on proposing new legislation to limit tobacco companies’ access to promote products inside San Jose’s LGBT bars and nightclubs, including e-cigarettes, and enforcing recent ordinances that restrict smoking in outdoor spaces.

National report shows high tobacco use by LGBTs

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by Elliot Owen IT’S TIME FOR SMOKING TO COME OUT OF THE CLOSET

See page 14 >>

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010 2014 LGBT CLEARLY DELINEATED as a population experiencing tobacco disparities in the 50th Anniversary Surgeon General’s Report

1960s–1990s 24 additional Surgeon General’s Reports on smoking are released, ZERO MENTION LGBT

33 TOTAL SURGEON GENERAL’S REPORTS ON SMOKING

3 MENTION LGB AND/OR T SMO K I NG

I S

THE

LGBT

COMMUNITY’S

BIGGES T

HEALTH

BURDEN

33% Design by Tusk and Dagger / tuskdagger.com

GBTs have long been known to smoke more than their straight counterparts and a new national report issued by the U.S. surgeon general backs that up: community members light up at a rate 65 percent higher than heterosexuals. The 32nd tobacco-related surgeon general’s report was released last week, on the anniversary of the office’s first study 50 years ago linking tobacco use with cancer. The report details the implications of tobacco use on the American populace since 1964. This year’s report, titled “Health Consequences of Smoking: 50 Years of Progress,” makes specific reference to health disparities within the LGBT community. It marks only the third time LGBT subgroups have been men-

LGBT Population

20%

$7.9 billion

U.S. Population

Estimated annual LGBT money spent on cigarettes

LGBT people smoke cigarettes at rates that are 68% HIGHER than the rest of the population.

LIFE-YEARS LOST

12.3

smokers with HIV

5.1

non-smokers with HIV

For citations and references, please visit http://bit.ly/SGR50LGBT LGBTHEALTHEQUITY.WORDPRESS.COM

Tusk and Dagger

The Network for LGBT Health Equity developed this graphic to show the prevalence of tobacco use in the LGBT community.

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<< Open Forum

t Putin’s charm offensive isn’t working

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

Volume 44, Number 4 January 23-29, 2014 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • David Guarino Peter Hernandez • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • David Lamble Michael McAllister • Michael McDonagh David-Elijah Nahmod • Elliot Owen Paul Parish • James Patterson • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Philip Ruth • Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Ed Walsh • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION T. Scott King PRODUCTION/DESIGN Jay Cribas PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland Rick Gerharter • Lydia Gonzales Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Steven Underhill Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Scott Wazlowski – 415.359.2612 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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

ussian President Vladimir Putin is pulling out all the stops leading up to the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. He has embarked on what can only be described as a charm offensive as he tries to tell the world that the anti-gay propaganda law that he championed – and signed last year – doesn’t target LGBT people. Moreover, Putin is using the old slur used by antigay bigots the world over that equates gays with pedophiles: “... please leave the children in peace.” That clip and an interview played Sunday on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, reveals that the anti-gay propaganda law does target LGBT people. The law calls for stiff fines and jail time for Russian citizens and foreigners in the country who “propagate” homosexuality to minors. This vague definition could include anything from hand-holding and other public displays of affection to broadcasting positive news stories about LGBT people. In fact, Stephanopoulos asked Putin whether someone would be prosecuted if they “wore a rainbow pin.” Putin said that “acts of protest” and “acts of propaganda” are “somewhat different.” Then he went on to say that gay sex was still a felony in some parts of the U.S. before Stephanopoulos corrected him, saying that the U.S. Supreme Court had overturned those laws, which it did more than a decade ago with its decision in Lawrence v. Texas. Putin tried to deflect the blame by saying that those to criticize Russia’s laws should “set their own house in order.” Sorry, Vlad, but people can protest, whether or not they are actually in a position to change things. Putin said that “politics shouldn’t interfere with sports” and he’s right, but the new Russian law makes it virtually impossible to separate the two. The U.S. Olympic Committee isn’t helping much and is asking athletes to accommodate the law. CEO Scott Blackmun recently told ESPN that U.S. athletes should focus on their competitions. “We’re hoping that out athletes feel very comfortable speaking their minds before they go to the games,” Blackmun said. “But when they get to the games, that’s really

the time to focus on sport.” Unfortunately, if you’re an out LGBT athlete it’s probably difficult to separate the political from the competition. It’s as if the USOC is asking athletes to forget part of themselves when they take to the ski slopes, the hockey ring, or the ice. One thing’s for sure, the world will be watching when the Olympics open, especially if there is a terrorist incident or if anyone is detained for protesting the antigay law. It’s the kind of attention that the Russian president, long known for his iron grip on state media and his citizens, will not relish. At least one out member of the U.S. delegation has been unsparing in her opposition to the Russian law and unwilling to remain silent about it. Retired tennis champion Billie Jean King deserves kudos for using the bully pulpit that came with her appointment. King and her fellow out athletes, Brian Boitano and Caitlin Cahow, were selected by President Barack Obama, but it is King who has taken advantage

Courtesy Russian Press Service

Russian President Vladimir Putin

of the media moment. In recent appearances on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report and This Week, she was critical of Putin and said she will not be silent during the games. When she was asked what she would say to Putin, “Please change this law,” was her response. King has been out, loud, and proud in the pre-Olympic media hype, and she has been on point. Boitano and Cahow should join her by expressing their outrage over the law and together counter Putin’s charm offensive.t

Trans health behind bars by Cecilia Chung

trials and two fact-intensive decisions by the district court. he transgender community in this naContrary to some reports from the media, tion has come a long way. State-by-state, this is the second U.S. Court of Appeals decicity-by-city, business-by-business progress has sion to affirm a trans inmate’s right to medically been made through the passage of non-disnecessary health care, including hormone thercrimination laws and policies apy and sex reassignment surto protect trans people against gery. The first case took place in workplace and housing disthe 7th Circuit in 2011. crimination, hate violence, and Both the district court and health care discrimination. We 1st Circuit acknowledged and are at the cusp of adding more accepted the facts presented by federal protections against emthe medical experts in the case. ployment, housing and health As the 1st Circuit recognized, care discrimination with in“[W]here at least three emicreased support of the Emnently qualified doctors testify ployment Non-Discrimination Michelle Kosilek without objection, in accord Act and the LGBT non-diswith widely accepted, published crimination provision in the Affordable Care standards, that Kosilek suffers from a life-threatand Patient Privacy Act. As LGBT communiening disorder that renders surgery medically ties begin to celebrate some of the sweeping necessary, and the fact finder is convinced by victories of equality across the country, and that testimony, we are at a loss to see the narratives of constitutional and human how this court can properly overrule rights permeate the media, there is silence on that finding of fact.” the rights and stories of LGBT people behind While the outcome of Kosilek’s bars. case is circulating across the naToday, I am going to break that taboo with tion, there is little to no mention the story of Michelle Kosilek and her over 20of her life story. You do not have year fight to receive necessary medical treatto read far into the court document behind bars. ments to learn of Kosilek’s tuKosilek is a trans woman who was found multuous childhood laced with guilty of murdering her wife. She is currently regular abuse “because of her serving a life sentence without the possibility expressed desire to live as a girl.” Her teenage of parole at the men’s prison in Norfolk, Masyears and early adulthood “were marred by arsachusetts. Since 1992, Kosilek has been batrests, incarcerations, beatings, heavy drinking, tling the Massachusetts Department of Cordrug use, and a stint as a prostitute.” While not rections (MA DOC) in federal court to obtain every member of the LGBT community has medical treatment related to her gender dysgone through similar experiences, Kosilek’s phoria. Last week, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court story resonates with many of us. of Appeals affirmed the district court’s ruling Exclaiming the state should not use taxpayfrom last year that the MA DOC’s denial of sex ers’ dollars to fund Kosilek’s surgical treatreassignment surgery, to treat Kosilek’s severe ment, loud dissent from the conservative gender dysphoria, is cruel and unusual punmedia (such as Fox News and Bill O’Reilly) ishment. As the 118-page decision from the is completely devoid of the fact that Kosilek’s 1st Circuit illustrates, the history of Kosilek’s medical providers recommended surgery. case spanned over two decades, including two There is no logical defense to categorically

denying trans inmates sexual reassignment surgery. MA DOC is routinely paying for prisoners’ hip-replacements and treatments for cancer and heart disease funded by taxpayers, and these treatments are far more costly than sex reassignment surgery. In Kosilek’s case, nearly all the medical experts agreed sex reassignment surgery is the most effective treatment to prevent any further attempts of self-harm and suicide by Kosilek. Anyone with common sense would realize the amount MA DOC spent to defend their bias is far more than the cost of Kosilek’s surgery. It is no secret among advocates that state prisons frequently deny trans inmates transition-related medical care; however, since 2011 laws have begun to change. Transgender inmates in federal prisons, halfway houses, and prisons that contract with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, have the right to receive an evaluation and, if applicable, a treatment plan for gender dysphoria that is consistent with the current standards of care. This right applies whether an inmate is diagnosed with gender dysphoria before incarceration or while incarcerated. In the end, Kosilek’s case will have significant implications for incarcerated trans individuals. As Chief Justice Earl Warren once said, “The [Eighth] Amendment must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” Withholding life-saving medical treatment to those who are incarcerated is unacceptable. The courts must enforce the constitutional rights of everyone, including incarcerated trans people. As the 1st Circuit appropriately held, “receiving medically necessary treatment is one of those rights, even if that treatment strikes some as odd or unorthodox.”t Cecilia Chung is a senior strategist at the Transgender Law Center.

Politics>>

t Law would ban bottled water sales at SF street fairs

January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

by Matthew S. Bajko

he sale of plastic water bottles would be banned at San Francisco street fairs and outdoor events on public property starting in late 2016 under a proposed law the Board of Supervisors is set to take up next month. LGBT events that would be impacted by the rule, should it be adopted, include the San Francisco Pride parade and festival, Folsom Street Fair, and the Castro Street Fair. The prohibition is included in a “first-in-the-nation legislative proposal” introduced by Board President David Chiu, who represents District 3. It would phase out the sale and distribution of plastic bottled water on municipal property. In addition to applying to city departments, the legislation would also cover events, permitted vendors, and lessees on San Francisco property. Foot races and other participant sporting events, however, would be excluded from the law. “I think this is a modest step to move San Francisco to provide better access to our pristine Hetch Hetchy water and phase out our over reliance on plastic water bottles,” Chiu told the Bay Area Reporter this week. At first only those events that have access to adequate on-site water would be required to comply; however, in late 2016 all events on city property would need to, according to Chiu’s office. City departments would be able to grant waivers to events and lessees under certain circumstances, such as for public health reasons, said Chiu. “None of these outdoor events will need to immediately consider these issues for a number of years,” said Chiu. “We want to bring this to the attention of the public and event planners so they start to consider making the transition to alternate sources of water.” Chiu pointed out that a number of city-permitted events already have stopped selling bottled water, one of the largest being the recent America’s Cup sailing races. Others include Oyster Fest, San Francisco Beer Week, and the Outside Lands musical festival, which Chiu said has “done a good job of providing alternative water solutions.” To assist event organizers in meeting the proposed water bottle ban, Chiu’s legislation would require the city to install drinking fountains, filling stations, and hook-ups for events when there is a renovation in a heavily used public park or plaza.

Rick Gerharter

If the sale of plastic water bottles is banned, perhaps penis-shaped reusable bottles, as seen here at the 2012 Pride festival, will be a mainstay at gay events.

It also asks the city to investigate solutions that would allow events to hook up to the municipal water infrastructure. In addition, city departments would no longer be allowed to purchase plastic bottled water with city funds under the proposed legislation. It would also require that any new permits and leases on city property include language prohibiting the sale of bottled water at those establishments. It would not apply to existing lessees and permit holders, or to private businesses. “Nothing in my legislation prevents anyone at a street corner or local store or any private place of business from selling plastic water bottles. We are only talking about events on city property,” said Chiu. The proposal has been met with some skepticism among event promoters and planners. Pride board member John Caldera questioned the legislation during a city Entertainment Commission meeting earlier this month. “It’s kind of like saying you can have an omelet but can’t break the egg shells,” he said of the proposed law. Entertainment Commissioner Audrey Joseph, who has overseen Pride’s main stage in years past, wondered aloud how the law would impact events that attract upward of a million people, often during hot summer days, such as Pride. “Have they said how street fairs will serve water?” she asked. During a recent editorial board

meeting with the B.A.R. District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener also said he has some reservations about the law’s impact on event promoters. “A number of events rely on selling water bottles to make sure they are viable. It is something I am concerned about,” said Wiener. “I know folks are talking to him about it. I very much appreciate the purpose of the legislation; we need to find a balance.” Due to the feedback and concerns event promoters relayed to his office last year as he crafted his legislation, Chiu said he included the provisions for phasing in the requirement in order to give organizers plenty of time to comply. “My office spent nine months working with a wide variety of stakeholders ... to address a lot of the concerns that have been raised,” said Chiu. “We are open to hearing from others and continuing the conversation.” He added that the elimination of water bottle sales would open up new revenue streams that street fairs could pursue, such as selling refillable water bottles. “Imagine Pride branded re-useable water bottles,” said Chiu.t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. The column returns Monday, Janaury 27. Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes. Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8615019 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

Suicide prevention training set compiled by Cynthia Laird

an Francisco Suicide Prevention will have a community training Thursday, January 30 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street. The workshop will cover statistics, why suicide, warning signs, assessment, and referrals. There is no cost to attend. For more information, contact Joe Palacios at joep@sfsuicide.org.

Give Kids a Smile Day The

Department

Public

Health’s Child Health Disability and Prevention program will hold an oral health outreach event for low-income children Friday, February 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at San Francisco General Hospital’s WIC office, 2250 23rd Street, Building 9. This sixth annual Give Kids a Smile Day combines community outreach, health education, and delivery of health services into a fun-filled day for San Francisco families. Children up to age 10 can receive free dental screenings, cleanings, and fluoride varnish treatment, as well as health education for the

whole family. Volunteers can also help connect children to a dentist if they are not already seeing one. There will be giveaways such as toys, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and a raffle for more prizes.

HIV doc screens in Fremont

The critically acclaimed documentary, How to Survive A Plague, will screen Sunday, January 26 at 1 p.m. at Washington West (Anderson Conference room B), 2500 Mowry Avenue in Fremont. The venue is a short walk from the Fremont BART station. The film will be shown in English with Spanish subtitles. The event, for adults only, is free and open to interested community members. Light refreshments will be served.t

/lgbtsf

<< Commentary

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

Your right to know by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

decade or so ago, I was sitting across from a local newspaper reporter as she interviewed me about my work on the Transgender Day of Remembrance. It was a pleasant discussion, going over the usual slew of questions: why did I create this project, how has it grown, and so on. Then the interview took a turn. The reporter suddenly decided she wanted to see photos of me from before my transition, wanted to know my birth name, and yes, wanted to know my surgical status. She was a bit put off when I explained to her that these were things I simply do not offer up in interviews. Simply put, I don’t think these questions are relevant to the work I’ve done. A week later, I opened the newspaper, and read the article. More than half of its length was not about my work at all, but about me. It talked about a photo of me pre-transitioned spied in my bedroom, and refers to that as “the old Gwen.” It painted a tale of me as having dirty blonde hair, and “chipped pink polish on her nails,” and talked about my love of “lots of dark eyeliner.” For the record, I don’t tend to wear polish, and wasn’t that day. I wear a modest amount of eyeliner. Oh, and my hair is probably best de-

Brinkin

From page 1

Knox added. According to the affidavit accompanying a search warrant in the case, in May 2012, San Francisco police viewed information that had been sent to them by a Los Angeles

scribed as a medium brown, albeit somewhat graying. It was at that moment, as I read this article about me, that I knew exactly why I did not answer questions about my past name or, for that matter, the configuration of my nether regions: if I had, these would be peppered within that article, presented as the “true” me, while the point of the story – my work on anti-transgender violence and murders – would be swept even further to the margins. It’s a given: as transgender people, we often face discrimination. We face it any time someone determines that we don’t live up to whatever expectations another has on our gender. We might get catcalls and sneers. We might get poor service. We could lose a job. In the worst cases, we could be beaten, raped, or killed. With all this in mind, is it any wonder that many of us choose not to disclose our transgender status to the world at large? Yet in a world where Facebook mines us for advertisers while the National Security Agency scoops up all our communications based on the fear that one of us might someday be a terrorist, privacy like this is an increasingly rare commodity. On a recent episode of Katie Cou-

ric’s eponymous talk show, an interview with transgender celebrities Carmen Carrera and Laverne Cox went south very quickly. “Your private parts are different now, aren’t they?” asked Couric of Carrera. Carrera shut that down quickly, but Couric pressed along similar lines later in the piece with Cox. While both handled these intrusive questions with poise and grace under pressure, the whole piece felt more like a train wreck than the “teachable moment” Couric claimed after the fact. I feel it also important to note that Couric had couched the interview – before Carrera and Cox were even on screen – with lurid warning of a “shocking transformation,” teasing up that her guests were “born a man” with as much taste as Maury Povich or Jerry Springer. Meanwhile, reporter Caleb Hannan, in a piece written for ESPN-produced sports website Grantland, tells the story of Dr. Essay Anne Vanderbilt, a.k.a. “Dr. V.” The piece speaks of the golf putter she developed, but quickly veers away from this, focusing on who the “mysterious” Dr. V is. This after Vanderbilt herself made it clear that any article she would be involved in would “focus on the science and not the scientist.” Hannan was unsatisfied with

this, and pressed on, digging deep into Vanderbilt’s background – and eventually discovered that she, too, was transgender. His narrative changes at this point. Vanderbilt, the “mad scientist” behind a piece of golfing equipment becomes a “troubled man.” Hannan outs Vanderbilt to a business associate of hers, and sets the stage for Vanderbilt’s final letter to Hannan – and Vanderbilt’s suicide. Hannan claims to be “writing a eulogy for a person who by all accounts despised [him],” yet his article is little more than a hit piece, an expose that outs a transwoman and leads directly to her death. There is this attitude that transgender people need to provide our

Police Department detective. That detective had received tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that had come from an America Online representative. Court records showed that police seized two locked red plastic toolboxes containing videos, two lap-

tops and a desktop computer, three thumb drives, and other items from Brinkin’s Waller Street home. Among other items, attached to one email police found an image that showed “an approximately 2-3 year old child ... Underneath the child is an adult male, using his right hand to hold the child and his

left hand to insert his erect penis into the anus of the child,” the document says. In the email, the user, who authorities indicated was Brinkin, wrote, “damn, what a sight seeing huge dick in tiny hole, tearing it open. That [n-word] must be in coon heaven stuffin it in the tiny

Christine Smith

histories – and our genital status – to anyone on demand. It’s at the heart of everything from schoolyard taunts to any challenge of our identities. It is as if people expect they have the right to know our past history, as well as the appearance of the most intimate parts of our bodies. I would never go up to any other woman and start a conversation about when they became a woman, and how their genitals behave differently now than when they were children. That would be the height of impropriety, let alone be more than a little creepy. Yet this is exactly what it is like to ask a transgender person about their body, with an added dash of threat: as if you added, “If your answer does not satisfy my curiosity, I will treat you very badly” to the end of your request. For the sake of Vanderbilt’s memory, this needs to stop. Transgender people have a right to privacy, just as any other person. Our histories are ours and ours alone to choose to share: they may no longer be demanded of us. You have no right, or need, to know.t Gwen Smith keeps her lips zipped. You can find her at www.gwensmith.com.

white hole!” Asked if he had any comment to the LGBT community on Brinkin’s behalf, Knox, who declined to allow reporters to speak to Brinkin, said, “I’m not really qualified to speak on Larry’s behalf to the LGBT community.” However, he said Brinkin See page 16 >>

Community News>>

January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Gay man installed as vicar at St. John’s church by James Patterson

Church’s first female presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Several members of church ministries participated in the service, including Mission Graduates, an educational ministry for youth; Julian Pantry, the church’s community food assistance program; and four members of the Peace Vigil Representatives ministry who placed a “War is not the Answer” sign in front of the pulpit. A parish signed covenant to work for the dignity of elders and the LGBT community also stood by the pulpit for the duration of the service. During his sermon, Smith, 64, spoke of his work for immigration reform so families would not be torn apart. He also called for an end to “the longest war in our nation’s history.” He spoke of his love for his husband Rob Tan, seated nearby with the church choir, and their 13-year-old son, David. In his comments during the service, Andrus, referring to the antigay protesters outside the church,

efore a supportive capacity congregation of over 100 and a small group of anti-gay sidewalk protesters, the Reverend Richard Smith, who is gay and a longtime community activist, was installed as vicar at the Episcopal Church of Saint John the Evangelist in the Mission. The Right Reverend Marc Handley Andrus, Episcopal Bishop of California, presided over the January 18 service. The two-hour installation began with six members of Danza Xitalli performing a dance of blessing in traditional Aztec clothes with exotic feather headdresses. As one member drummed, others danced with hand and ankle instruments as incense billowed from a small urn. Near the end, dancers turned to the altar and acknowledged the cross. Due to Smith’s long commitment to aid social causes around the world, members of his congregation

Jane Philomen Cleland

The Reverend Richard Smith delivers a sermon during his January 18 installation as vicar of the Episcopal Church of Saint John the Evangelist in the Mission.

gifted him with Ugandan free trade coffee, a hand-painted cross from El Salvador, and the 2010 book The Heartbeat of God, by the Episcopal

said he had not seen his name on picket signs since he voted to confirm openly gay Reverend V. Gene Robinson as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire in 2003 while Andrus was bishop of Alabama. “I must be doing something right,” he told the congregation, who applauded. Tan, who performed the First Movement of the Goldberg Variations of a Bach aria during the service, said his husband’s installation was “a renewal” for the church, where they were married in 2000 after an 11-year relationship. Tan, 56, is a software engineer and Ivy League graduate. He said that he and Smith were looking forward to a rewarding and enriching parish life at St John’s. Jorge Garcia, 50, an organizer of a seven-member group of protesters bearing crudely made paper signs, demonstrated outside St. John’s but did not attempt to disrupt the installation. Garcia, who identified himself as a local businessman, held

a sign that read “Rev. Richard Smith does not represent 11 million.” It was not clear what that number referred to. Other protesters carried Spanish signs urging Andrus not to install Smith. A gay male couple on their way to the service directed a “Shame on you” to the protesters. One female protester claimed a gay man tore her cardboard sign and pushed her. Garcia said that he phoned for police. The Bay Area Reporter saw no police before, during, or after the service. When the B.A.R. asked Garcia why his group opposed Smith, he replied with wild accusations he could not support. He said he would provide evidence in an email but no communication was received four days after the service. Smith referred the B.A.R. to Andrus for a response to Garcia. In brief comments after the installation, Andrus told the B.A.R. that “there was no merit” to Garcia’s accusations.t

Recycling center set to close in July by David-Elijah Nahmod

settlement has been reached between Safeway and a recycling center that operates on a shared parking lot, meaning the center will close July 1. San Francisco Community Recyclers, which operates the center, had been evicted from its location at Market and Church streets last summer. The battle between Safeway and the recycling center has been ongoing. Some neighborhood residents applaud the closure, complaining of the center’s “unsanitary” conditions. Others say that the closure will deny much needed income to the poor and homeless, who collect cans and bottles from privately owned recycling bins and sell them to the center. “Safeway and the recycling center have entered into a settlement agreement in which the center will vacate the property by June 30, 2014,” said Keith Turner, spokesman for Safeway corporate headquarters. “Safeway continues to analyze its recycling options at this location.” Turner did not provide details of the settlement when asked. A January 10 San Francisco Chronicle story referred to past statements by recycling center director Ed Dunn in which he said that the California Bottle Bill requires large supermarkets to have recycling centers. “Safeway is beginning to realize that abruptly closing its recycling centers without offering the public an alternative to redeem their beverage containers is bad policy,” Dunn told the Bay Area Reporter. “Reverse vending machines are not a cost effective stand-alone solution. They are intended to augment the existing network of recycling centers, not replace them. Recycling centers are in reality used by people from all walks of life, although fixed income elderly and the working poor certainly use the recycling centers in greater numbers.” Gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener has long supported the recycling center’s closure. “I support Safeway’s decision to close this recycling center,” Wiener said. “People who rely on recycling redemption for income will still be able to do so, just not at this large industrial site. In this era of curbside recycling, we don’t need as many large, industrial recycling centers, parSee page 16 >>

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<< Sports

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

College wrestler faces HIV charges by Roger Brigham

former national junior college wrestling champion is being charged in Missouri with multiple counts of knowingly exposing sexual partners to HIV in a case that raises issues regarding the intersection of race, sexual orientation, and homophobia. Michael L. Johnson, 22, was arrested by St. Charles, Missouri police in October after a fivemonth investigation that began when a resident told them he was diagnosed with HIV and gonorrhea one month after having bareback sex with Johnson in Johnson’s dorm room on the Lindenwood University campus.

Johnson, a physical education major, was dropped from the university wrestling team upon his arrest. Last week, county prosecutors added more charges after four more male Lindenwood students came forward saying they had unprotected sex with Johnson. He now faces five felonies: one for recklessly infecting another person with HIV, and four for recklessly exposing someone to the risk of infection. The first charge carries a prison term of 10 years to life, the rest five to 15 years. Police say they have recovered video Johnson shot of his encounters and that there may be as many as 30 others involved. Under the name Michael Johnson-Jones, Johnson won the Indiana state high school championship at 189 pounds his senior year in 2010 with an overtime victory in the final match. He went on to wrestle for Lincoln College in Illinois, a community college, before enrolling at Lindenwood last year. In his final year at Lincoln, he won the 2012 National Junior College Athletic Association championship at 197 pounds with a 3-1 victory in the final match after finishing seventh the year before. That led his college to a third-place finish overall, an achievement that Logan County, Illinois praised with a special proclamation that April. Johnson is an African American man who was raised with three brothers by a single mother. News stories about him on the Internet are accompanied by racist, hateful, violent comments from straights and gays alike. There are online exchanges about who is at fault, the importance of using protection, of taking personal responsibility. Those who knew him express

shock and sadness. Entries on his Facebook page, on which he called himself “Tiger Mandingo” and he last updated in October before his arrest, show a barely literate young man who like so many at that age was searching for answers in God and love. He shows off his muscular body in numerous bare torso pictures and writes about his discovery of the meaning of Eros, Agape, Philos, and Storge – the four Greek-based terms for love immortalized by C.S. Lewis – with all their propensity for our darkest and brightest moments. “I’m a fun fabulous sweet person with a huge heart and Michael Johnson, in an image from his personality and we as people Facebook page. have feelings,” he wrote. “Stand up for those who are different. Everyone deserves love and LGBT inclusion in sports will be kindness and most of all respect!!!!” held on the Cal and Stanford camWhat emerges is a portrait of a puses next week leading up to the young black athlete isolated by ighome-and-home games between norance, homophobia, and fear, the two women’s basketball powersearching for love and acceptance houses. while hiding in plain sight along the The Athletes Reaching Equality banks of the Mississippi. session in Berkeley will be from 7 In 1992, I interviewed Magic to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, January 28, Johnson for the Advocate about his at Cal Memorial Stadium. OrgaHIV infection and his newfound nized by Cal player Mikayla Lyles activism. He spoke about the lack of and Stanford player Toni Kokenis, resources and education of regardthe panel will include former NFL ing HIV and AIDS in urban centers player Wade Davis, executive direcwith large African American cities. tor of You Can Play; Helen CarHe spoke about the lack of acceproll, sports director of the National tance of gays within his community. Center for Lesbian Rights; author He talked about his hopes resources and sports activist Pat Griffin; and would be reallocated, community Nevin Caple, co-founder of Br{ache conversations would be held, inforthe Silence. mation would supplant ignorance, The Stanford events begin with and acceptance would usurp hatred. a panel discussion in the BurnMore than two decades later, the ham Pavilion from 7 to 9 p.m. on picture seems as bleak as ever. Wednesday, January 29. Both events will include refreshments and an art Sports inclusion gallery. The Cal session will include talks to take place an extended presentation of Cal’s A series of free presentations on You Can Play anti-bullying video;

the Stanford session will offer a brief documentary on gender stereotypes and homophobia. Stanford will also host a high school workshop at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, January 30, followed by a youth clinic at 6 p.m. Both include dinner, T-shirts, and tickets to the 8 p.m. StanfordCal women’s basketball game that evening. The two teams meet again at 1 p.m., Sunday, February 2, on the Berkeley campus. RSVP information is available on the “We A.R.E Pride” events page on Facebook.

Reflections on the Forty-Niners season

First question: has Richard Sherman shut up yet? A pity that Sherman, obviously well coached in the tools of his trade throughout his career, never learned the basics of class or sportsmanship. A future awaits him in professional wrestling. Grudge match with Richie Incognito? ... At what point do you think the officials realized they were having a bad day? ... With the western divisions in both NFL conferences producing the most playoff teams and the two Super Bowl finalists, and the teams of the west walloping the teams of the east in the NBA, do you think maybe the Eastern Sports Programming Network will finally start paying attention to what happens on the West Coast? Or will that interfere with Tony Kornheiser’s nap time? ... Bad officiating and posturing aside, Russell Wilson won that game with his extension of plays. His duel with Colin Kaepernick, alarmingly onesided thus far, after a few years will be looked upon much as fans now look at Peyton Manning versus Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers versus Drew Brees.t

Obituaries >> Seth Lawrence April 18, 1944 – January 7, 2014

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS:

1) On ARVs with an undetectable viral load 2) CD4 T-Cell above 600 3) Clean and Sober 4) No Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C

Contact Dr. Jacob Lalezari for more information Phone: (415) 353-0800 drjay@questclinical.com

Seth Lawrence died January 7, 2014 at 2:52 p.m. at Maitri Hospice from a multitude of complications due to AIDS. He died peacefully in the arms of his husband and soul mate of 20 years, Scot Hammond. Seth was born on April 18, 1944 to parents Nathan Schneider and Rose Berman in Brooklyn. He received his bachelor’s and Master of Arts degrees from Brooklyn College in theater arts. Seth had a flair for adventure. He was a skilled theatrical and operatic director, social worker, teacher, and a well-known gay activist/chairperson for Gay Activist Alliance and Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee in New York in the 1970s. In San Francisco he worked as, among other things: an HIV counselor and facilitator, manager of Global Travel, Now Voyager, and as Shanti’s volunteer coordinator. In addition, he and his husband worked with a campaign that rescues greyhounds. Seth and Hammond became poster children for HIV prevention and same-sex marriage. Seth was awarded a certificate of appreciation in 2006 from then-Mayor Gavin Newsom and then-Supervisors Tom Ammiano and Bevan Dufty recognizing him as an exemplary citizen and key contributor to San Francisco HIV/AIDS efforts. His sweet, inspirational, fun, and somewhat bad-boy attitude will never be forgotten. His spirit filled with love,

his infectious smile, his dancing eyes, and his sexy voice will carry on in many hearts. A potluck celebration of life will be held Saturday, January 25 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For questions and the address, contact Hammond at (415) 987-5392.

Barry Ress June 9, 1954 – June 14, 2013

Barry Charles Ress was born in Cleveland, Ohio June 9, 1954 and died June 14, 2013, two years after being diagnosed with ALS. He was the youngest of four children born to Tom and Mary Ress. He died at the home he shared with his partner of 29 years, Chip Rath. He was an avid biker, swimmer, music and theater lover. Barry stood up to injustice. He dedicated his life to helping others as a registered nurse between 1977 and 1987 and then a nurse practitioner with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing. He was the first clinical nurse specialist at Highland Hospital teaching about AIDS in 1988 and dedicated his career to AIDS care, geriatric care, and patient palliative care at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland. He worked in ACT UP/East Bay and on many of the state campaigns to protect gay rights. Money has been donated in his name to the foundation he and Rath helped create to improve literacy in Oakland, the Friends of the Oakland Public School Libraries at http:// www.fopsl.org. A blog is available at http://barryress.blogspot.com/.

ebar.com

Community News>>

January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

Nigerian LGBTs in panic as wave of arrests hit community by Heather Cassell

igerian authorities have unleashed a reign of terror on the county’s LGBT community. Since the public learned that Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan signed the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act 2013 into law earlier this month a wave of arrests of suspected LGBTs, mostly men, under Islamic law has been made. Within hours of the law being signed human rights representatives in Nigeria reported more than a dozen arrests of suspected gay men. Outrage of the news created a rapid global backlash against Nigeria last week, but that hasn’t halted arrests of suspected LGBT individuals, threats against their families, and blackmail. An unidentified individual was reportedly convicted of homosexuality and punished with up to 20 lashes, according to multiple media reports. Ten men will be tried under Is-

Memoir

From page 1

into a squad car. Numerous news outlets quoted his first-hand account of the scene. In 1985 he and Todd Collins opened their own firm to provide fundraising and marketing assistance to groups pushing progressive causes, including AIDS and LGBT issues. As more and more friends and acquaintances died of AIDS, and he dealt with his own health issues, Strub became more involved in AIDS activism, participating in ACT UP/New York demonstrations. “I really believed my involvement in ACT UP was critical to saving my life,” said Strub in the interview. But he also now believes the group’s push to have the federal government expedite the approval of HIV drugs before they were fully vetted had unintended outcomes. “We felt we had a right to take that risk and experiment with them even if they were two years away from approval,” Strub said. “It made perfect sense then and makes perfect sense now. However, the way we went about and did that, changing the regulatory policies, I don’t think we understood we were doing the pharmaceutical industries’ desire for deregulating work.” In 1990 he unsuccessfully ran for a congressional seat in upstate New York. Some years prior Strub and his partner, Michael Misove, who died due to AIDS, had moved to the small town of Piermont. Later he produced his friend David Drake’s one-man off-Broadway show The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me. In 1994 he released the first issue of Poz and oversaw the chronicling of the AIDS epidemic from the perspective of people living with HIV. While his chronicling his own fight against HIV won plaudits, the magazine’s coverage also caused controversy, whether on bare-backing sexual practices or detailing the side effects of AIDS drugs. A decade after its launch, Strub sold off the groundbreaking magazine to several staffers. His most recent efforts have focused on the issue of HIV criminalization as executive director of the Sero Project.

Questions health officials

He is critical of the lack of attention national LGBT groups and the community at large has paid toward HIV in recent years. And he questions the validity of the latest mantra from health officials who embrace a “test and treat” approach

lamic law and could be sentenced to death. Representatives of human rights organizations are working to find out the names of the men who have been arrested. Some people have fled their homes as another wave of arrests took place in parts of Nigeria that are under Islamic law. Upward of 16 arrests have been reported, wrote Nigerian Reverend Jide Macaulay, founder and project director of House of Rainbow Fellowship, in Sogi News. In addition to detainment and torture, authorities are reportedly extorting victims $120 to $300 before they are released from custody, he wrote. Human rights organizations in Nigeria are opening their doors to help with emergency evacuations of people seeking safe houses. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Kimoon expressed “deep concern” about the law, as did High Commis-

to HIV prevention. “It is more like treating it chemically rather than addressing the underlying conditions that lead people to engage in behaviors that put them at risk,” said Strub. San Francisco has been in the vanguard of moving resources toward testing people for HIV and encouraging those who test positive to start taking medications. But Strub worries people are not fully informed about what opting for early treatment entails. “These drugs are not benign,” he said. “In the absence of scientific evidence, the idea of putting people on treatment with high CD4 cell counts is very concerning to me.” He has similar concerns about encouraging negative men to take a pill-a-day, known as PrEP or pre-exposure prophylaxis, to help prevent the transmission of HIV. He doubts recent news coverage that the lack of usage of PrEP by gay men is due to doctors unwilling to prescribe it. “I think the squeamishness of doctors has been overstated and the limited desire on gay men’s part has been under-recognized,” he said, adding that his “concern on PrEP is the broader shift to biomedical prevention. There is an over emphasis on it over other prevention strategies.” He remains convinced the best prevention strategies are those community members design themselves. “What is effective for gay men living in the Castro is different for gay men living in the closet in rural Louisiana,” he said. His advice for the best step a person living with HIV should take, said Strub, is “more than anything else, connect with other people who have HIV.”t Strub has a number of events planned in the Bay Area next week. Wednesday, January 29 at 7:30 p.m. he will be reading from and signing copies of his book at the Books Inc. Castro location at 2275 Market Street. Thursday, January 30 at noon he will speak before the Luncheon Society at Fior d1Italia, 2237 Mason Street, San Francisco. To RSVP email bob.mcbarton@ comcast.net. That night at 7 p.m. he will be at the Bookshop Santa Cruz at 1520 Pacific Avenue. Friday, January 31 at 7 p.m. he will take part in a Q&A session at an event hosted by Let’s Kick ASS, which stands for AIDS Survivor Syndrome. It takes place the San Francisco LGBT Community Center at 1800 Market Street.

Elizabeth Whitman/IPS

The proposed law banning same-sex marriages and civil unions is just the tip of the iceberg, Nigerian activists say.

sioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, according to a January 15 U.N statement. Ban joins government leaders, such as the European Union, and

representatives of human rights, LGBT rights, HIV/AIDS organizations, and faith leaders as pressure mounts against Nigeria. Last week, representatives of UNAIDS and the Global Fund said they are concerned about the “risks obstructing effective responses to HIV/AIDS.” Ban hopes the law’s constitutionality will be reviewed. He reiterated that “everyone is entitled to enjoy the same basic rights and live a life of worth and dignity without discrimination,” a fundamental principle in the U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. At the same time Nigeria won’t be hurting financially. Activists are upset that U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron broke a promise to cut funding to Nigeria in light of the anti-gay law. Instead of blocking funding to the country, the U.K. is increasing funding from $328 million to $443 million, reported Gay Star News. The funds heading to Nigeria don’t go directly to the Nigerian government. The money is distrib-

uted through human aid agencies working in the country.

Uganda’s president kicks anti-gay bill back to parliament

Meanwhile, in some good news, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni declined to sign the Anti-Homosexuality Bill on a technicality, claiming that it was passed by parliament illegally. “Homosexuals need help. They are sick,” spokesman Tamale Mirundi told the media on behalf of Museveni. “Homosexuals were present in Africa in the past and were not persecuted.” Museveni kicked the bill back to parliament in a letter last Friday, stating that he couldn’t sign the bill because parliament did not have a quorum when the bill was passed, said Mirundi. Additionally, Museveni doesn’t believe that homosexuality is a priority for Uganda. See page 14 >>

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14 ••BBAY AYA AREA REAR REPORTER EPORTER • January January23-29, 23-29,2014 2014

Drought

From page 1

Area political leaders said they were glad the governor issued the declaration. State Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) pointed out that there are many simple ways to conserve water. Fixing leaky fixtures and appliances, installing water-saving showerheads and taking shorter showers, and only using the dishwasher and washing machine when you have a full load are among suggestions he listed in a news release. Water conservation is already on the mind of at least one San Francisco business catering to gay men. At Eros, co-owner Ken Rowe told the Bay Area Reporter that the sex club is already conserving water. “We have low-flow shower heads and will be putting up more signage in the shower rooms,” Rowe said. “We’ve done this before during dry years but will especially now with the governor’s declaration.” Other businesses that use a lot of water are also doing their part. Todd Ahlberg, co-owner of Mudpuppy’s Tub and Scrub, which has a location in the Castro, said they have been water-conscious since opening their first location at Point Isabel in the East bay 15 years ago. “Over that time, we’ve been through a few droughts,” Ahlberg said in an email. He added that Mudpuppy’s uses special low-flow nozzles when washing pooches. “Unlike most dog washing facilities, we don’t use garden head nozzles to wash dogs. Those are intended to get as much water on plants and lawns as quickly as possible. Dogs don’t need that,” he ex-

Tobacco use

From page 3

tioned and the first time the LGBT community in its entirety has been cited as a disparity group. “It’s taken so long for the LGBT community to be considered a health disparity population,” said Daniella Mathews-Trigg, program administrator of the Network for LGBT Health Equity at CenterLink. “With every federal document that includes LGBT comes more funding for data collection and. hopefully, we can close those disparity gaps.” Recently, Mathews-Trigg continued, enough data around LGBT smoking has emerged to serve as the impetus behind making specific reference to the subject on a federal level. The report stated that the LGBT community spends $7.9 billion on cigarettes each year which, according to Mathews-Trigg, is 65 times more than government agencies, nonprofits, and all other health-focused entities combined spend on LGBT health annually. Other updated data outlined by the report include a figure for overall LGBT community smoking prevalence. The LGBT population smokes at a rate 65 percent higher than the general population – 20 percent of the general population smokes compared to 33 percent of the LGBT population. Additionally, HIV-positive smokers live 7.2 years less than HIV-negative smokers. Acting Surgeon General Dr. Boris D. Lushniak released a statement with the report emphasizing the importance of highlighting LGBT smoking. “From the surgeon general’s per-

Out in the World

From page 13

The bill, which originally had a clause condemning LGBTs to the death penalty when it was introduced in 2009, has faced years of uphill struggle. Late last year, the bill was amended – the death sentence

plained. “Our nozzles are rated at 1.5 [gallons per minute], as opposed to standard nozzles that pump out anywhere from seven to 11 GPM.” Other conservation measures in use include a “walk-through” tub system that allows Mudpuppy’s to wash two dogs at once (if the animals also live together) and they don’t leave the water running while shampooing and conditioning. “We use only the water we need,” Ahlberg said. At the news conference, Brown was asked what lessons he learned from the 1976-1977 drought when he was also governor. He joked that he didn’t save his notebook. But on a more serious note, he said people needed to come together. “A lot of what goes on in the state Capitol is people want this or that,” he said. “Now we’re facing a phenomenon of nature and we’re dependent on one another.” Gay state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) spoke in similar terms in a statement to the B.A.R. that also urged water agencies to make sure low-income people aren’t hard hit if prices increase. “We are not going to be able to do anything about how much rain falls, so we will be short on water,” Ammiano said. “What we have control over is how we use what falls. It’s up to us to rein in our water use to make sure it’s available for those who really need it. We should also make sure that the burden of costs doesn’t fall hardest on those who can least afford it.” Ammiano said that those with low incomes “should not face heavy drought-related water price increases that will further sap their limited incomes.” The San Francisco Public Utili-

ties Commission said in a statement that it shared Brown’s concern over persistent dry weather conditions and urged its customers to “look for any opportunity to further reduce their consumption.” Several members of California’s congressional delegation, including Representative Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco-San Mateo) thanked the governor for the emergency declaration. They noted that the federal spending bill signed by President Barack Obama last week restored the federal government’s emergency drought programs. The governor’s emergency declaration also gives state water officials more flexibility to manage supply throughout the state, including water transfers. Gay state Senator Mark Leno (DSan Francisco) told the B.A.R. that the drought situation “is as serious as it appears to be.” “Only time will tell how long the situation will continue and how much damage will be done to people’s lives and the economy,” he said. “We need to take this very seriously.” Leno added that while San Francisco’s situation is stable, “we all need to do our part in conservation.” The SFPUC has information on its website about rebates for installing low-flow toilets and washing machines. For information, visit www.sfwater.org and click on “Customer Service,” then “Rebates.” Save Our Water, a statewide program created in 2009 by the California Department of Water Resources and the Association of California Water Agencies, offers tips on water conservation as well as ways to permanently reduce water use. More information can be found online at www.saveourh2o.org.t

spective we look at the data. People ask where are the disparities now, and we use LGBT as an example of one of those disparities,” he said. “I’m a man in uniform and this is a war. LGBT smoking is important to us, because the numbers aren’t good. What we need to decide is what is the best strategic and tactical approach to bring those numbers down?” Mathews-Trigg said using this moment as a call to action is the next step. While HIV among LGBTs has largely and appropriately been the community’s focus for so long, she said, tobacco use has been neglected. “Many people don’t realize the connection between tobacco and the general health of the community,” Mathews-Trigg said. “We have this moment where everyone is paying attention and we want to highlight this issue as an even bigger killer than HIV.” In Santa Clara County, where officials released results of the firstever LGBT health survey, data show smokers mirror the national statistics; South Bay LGBT smokers are three times more likely to light up. The health survey, “Status of LGBTQ Health: Santa Clara County, California 2013,” was released January 10. The county’s bisexual and gay men, who made up 33 percent and 22 percent of smokers, respectively, represent nearly a quarter of the South Bay’s LGBT residents. Bisexual women and lesbians made up 23 percent and 19 percent of smokers, respectively. Transgender individuals made up 19 percent of the population that lights up. The South Bay findings alarmed

Brian Davis, a 54-year-old gay man who is the California Tobacco Control Program coordinator at the TriCity Health Center in Fremont. “This represents a serious problem in the LGBT community – that we are smoking three times as much in comparison to the general population in Santa Clara County,” said Davis. “We need to look at taking action to address that problem.” Davis, who has been working in LGBT tobacco control for six years, is also project director of the Just for Us LGBT Tobacco Prevention Project as a part of his responsibilities at the center. While a comprehensive approach to combating LGBT tobacco use on a national level has yet to be devised, the Network for LGBT Health Equity is currently drafting an LGBTQ Wellness Needs Assessment survey to collect more information around health issues experienced by the LGBT community. To be released to all major LGBT community and health organizations around the country this summer, the network intends for the survey to shed even more light on LGBT smoking prevalence. “Understanding this as a big issue and having more federal data will create an excitement for change,” Mathews-Trigg said. “We want the heads of LGBT organizations as well as individuals to be more aware. On the federal data collection level, we want the continued inclusion of the LGBT community on health surveys.”t

was changed to life in prison – before being passed by parliament in December under Speaker Rebecca Kadaga’s direction. The bill severely limits LGBT Ugandans’ freedom to socialize and gather, much less talk about samesex love. Individuals could spend life in prison for “aggravated homo-

sexuality,” which is defined as sex with a minor, ongoing sexual relationships with someone of the same sex, and more. A two-thirds vote is needed in order to override the president’s decision.

Heather Cassell contributed to this report.

See page 16 >>

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035553600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BANANA HOME, 321 KEARNY ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PARAGON 168 CORP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/26/13.

JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035549200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GYRO XPRESS MEDITERRANEAN CUISINE, 499 CASTRO ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed VOLKANCEM INC.. 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 12/23/13.

JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035545500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GLOW, 325 PACIFIC AVE. #202, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed UPWARD LABS HOLDINGS INC. (DE). 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 12/19/13.

JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035545400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HVF LABS, 325 PACIFIC AVE. #200, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HVF, LLC (DE). 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 12/19/13.

JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035550100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUTTER STREET CAFE, 450 SUTTER ST. #7, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SUTTER STREET CAFE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/23/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/23/13.

JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035572200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JACKUNISON LLC, 755 GONZALEZ DR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed JACKUNISON LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/06/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/07/14.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035561800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: STEPHANIE’S NURSERY, 1104 TENNESSEE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed STEPHANIE CLAIRE WOODS. 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 12/31/13.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035557600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GLOW HAND AND FOOT SPA, 1780 FULTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HONG THI VY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/30/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/30/13.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035566500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GREENSURGE, 2301 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SERGIO NOVOA. 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 01/03/14.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035554700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PDE ARTS, 1730 SACRAMENTO ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LING CHO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/27/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/27/13.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035565500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SJT MOVING COMPANY, 2620 VICENTE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZHONG MING HUO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/03/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/03/14.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014

NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR CHANGE IN OWNERSHIP OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE LICENSE Dated 12/10/2013 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: WJH ENTERPRISE INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1356 GRANT AVE., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133-3932. Type of license applied for

41 - ON-SALE BEER & WINE - EATING PLACE JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES Dated 12/23/13 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: CRYSTAL JADE JIANG NAN LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 4 EMBARCADERO CTR., STE ONE, LOBBY LEVEL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111-4106. Type of license applied for

47 - ON-SALE GENERAL EATING PLACE JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035553200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLDIES OAKWOOD BBQ, 230 YALE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed AZAR L. JONES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/26/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/26/13.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035545100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INQUIRING MINDS PRODUCTIONS, 733 FRONT ST. #704, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ARTHUR PETERSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/19/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/19/13.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035555900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LIGHTHOUSE COMMUNICATIONS, 2845 VAN NESS #603, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANNE KATHERINE RICKETTS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/25/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/27/13.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035562900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RUBIS NAILS, 4000 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed DIEN THI BUI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/02/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/01/14.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035553500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JACK IN THE BOX, 2739 TAYLOR ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed KAM FOOD MANAGEMENT INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/26/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/26/13.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035566800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOTEL EPIK, 706 POLK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed NEW PACIFIC HOTEL INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/03/14.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-033572500 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: OUTSIDE CONCIERGE, 2699 TAYLOR ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by JUSTIN DANIEL GIBSON. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/18/11.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES Dated 10/08/13 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: FERRY PLAZA SEAFOOD INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 653-655 UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133-2811. Type of license applied for

41 - ON-SALE BEER & WINE - EATING PLACE JAN 16, 23, 30, 2014

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

Classifieds The

Gaylesta2x2_0610CN Gaylesta2x2_0610CN

Legal Notices>>

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035578600

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035581600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE THERAPY LOUNGE, 364 HAYES ST. 2ND FL., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WILLIAM NGUYEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/09/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/10/14.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VETS IT, 5 THOMAS MELLON CIRCLE #108, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SELECT BUSINESS PRODUCTS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/13/14.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035578500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LESS IS MORE PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZING; LESS IS MORE SF; 1833 24TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KAREN LESLIE ROORDA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/02/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/10/14.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035575500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOMA LUXURY PROPERTIES, 2 TOWNSEND ST. #3-105, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN F. VALDEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/07/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/09/14.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035541600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DENIS O’KEEFFE HANDYMAN, 430 21ST AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DENIS O’KEEFFE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/17/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/17/13.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035561700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DAILY BEVERAGE, 190 FUNSTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL S. DAILY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/31/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/31/13.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035580900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BALLET TO GO, 128 EUREKA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed JOSEPH SCHMITZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/13/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/13/14.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035572400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAGIKID, 156 2ND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ANGELL ECHO, INC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/07/13.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035581000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CLT EXPRESS INC, 1630 DAVIDSON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CLT EXPRESS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/13/14.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035571000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOTEL UTAH, 504 4TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HOTEL UTAH INVESTMENT LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/26/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/07/14.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC14-550034 In the matter of the application of: EMILY GAIL WEEKS, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner EMILY GAIL WEEKS, is requesting that the names EMILY GAIL WEEKS, aka EMILY G. WEEKS, aka EMILY WEEKS be changed to JILL DAPHNE ARMOUR. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, 5th Fl. on the 13th of March 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES Dated 12/27/13 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: GARFIELD BEACH CVS LLC, LONGS DRUG STORES CALIFORNIA LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1 JEFFERSON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133-1217. Type of license applied for

21 - OFF-SALE GENERAL JAN 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC14-550051 In the matter of the application of: ALHAJI JEFFERY KAMARA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ALHAJI JEFFERY KAMARA, is requesting that the name ALHAJI JEFFERY KAMARA, be changed to JEFFERY NATURE KAMARA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, 5th Fl. on the 18th of March 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 23, 30, FEB 06, 13, 2014 SUMMONS (FAMILY LAW) ALAMEDA COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: SUGAN SUKSAWANG YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: ROSEMARIE DIAZ CASE NO. HF12627002 You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this Summons and Petition are served on you to file a Response (form FL-120 or FL-123) at the court and have a copy served on the petitioner. A letter or phone call will not protect you. If you do not file your Response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnerships, your property, and custody of your children. You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the clerk for a fee waiver form. If you want legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately. You can get information about finding lawyers at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/ selfhelp), at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), or by contacting your local county bar association. NOTICE: The restraining orders following are effective against both spouses or domestic partners until the petition is dismissed, a judgment entered, or the court makes further orders. These orders are enforceable anywhere in California by any law enforcement officer who has received or seen a copy of them. NOTE: If a judgment or support order is entered, the court may order you to pay all or part of the fees and costs that the court waived for yourself or the other party. If this happens, the party ordered to pay fees shall be given notice and an opportunity to request a hearing to set aside the order to pay waived court fees.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UNO DOS TACO, 595 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed APMEX LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/14/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/14/14.

SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF ALAMEDA, 24405 AMADOR ST, HAYWARD, CA 94566; PREPARED BY DAN CASEY, LDA #120, SANTA CLARA COUNTY, 1261 LINCOLN AVE #201, SAN JOSE, CA 95125, PH (408) 295-6955; the name, address, and telephone number of petitioner’s attorney, or the petitioner without an attorney, is: ROSEMARIE DIAZ, 3955 VINEYARD AVENUE #44, PLEASANTON, CA 94566, PH (510) 706-5809 APR 17, 2012 Clerk of the Superior Court by S. Debaca-Arredondo, Deputy. NOTICE TO THE PERSON SERVED: You are served as an individual.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2014

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16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

Recycling center

From page 7

ticularly in the middle of residential neighborhoods. This center has been a major headache for the surrounding neighborhood for a long time.” Wiener said some examples included theft. “It created significant problem behavior in the area and made recycling theft even more extreme,” he said. “We’ve seen an increase in organized criminal enterprises engaging in massive recycling theft, which disrupts neighborhoods and increases garbage rates.” Supporters of the recycling center

Out in the World

From page 14

Irish trans woman wins discrimination case

Deirdre O’Byrne, a transgender woman who brought a discrimination case against the Allied Irish Banks has won her case. The Equality Tribunal announced the decision

Brinkin

From page 6

has spoken to “people who have been friends and supporters in the

wondered how its closure would affect the economy. “Where is the economic impact report detailing how many jobs were eliminated by that eviction?” asked AIDS Housing Alliance/San Francisco director Brian Basinger. “Where is the data on the percentage increase in earned income for those struggling households, many of whom are senior and disabled, who rely on that extra income to pay rent and to put food in their mouths? Where is the plan to replace those lost jobs for the longtime San Franciscans who rely on them?” Wiener said people could still redeem their recyclables.

“The closure of this industrial recycling center won’t stop anyone from redeeming recyclables for cash,” said Wiener. “What it will do is stop concentrating all of the negative impacts of the center on one neighborhood. It will also make it harder for the organized recycling theft criminal rings to operate.” Basinger said that he himself has, in the past, collected cans and redeemed them at the recycling center in order to help supplement the incomes of friends who were dying of AIDS. “I passed that recycling center every day for 15 years and never noticed any nuisance whatsoever,” he said.t

last month. It became public this month when O’Byrne’s banking issues weren’t fully resolved. Last month, the tribunal found that O’Byrne was discriminated against on gender grounds and ordered AIB to review its policies related to people who change their names. The tribunal also awarded O’Byrne an estimated $6,775.

In 2010, O’Byrne informed her bank of her name change by filing the appropriate declarations. Everything was changed on her financial accounts and documents, except for her cashsave account, a liquid savings account. She was told to shut down her cashsave account. She refused to close the account. “I was aware of other transgen-

der people who had successfully changed the name on their AIB accounts without having to close them down. I was not going to participate in my own discrimination by complying with AIB’s request to close my account,” she said. AIB has since shut down cashsavings accounts in favor of regular debit and demand deposit accounts,

separating cash accounts.t

past to explain personally how this happened.” Among highlights of his HRC career, Brinkin was a manager for the city’s equal benefits ordinance, the first of its kind in the country. The

ordinance requires city contractors to provide the same benefits to their employees with spouses and their employees with domestic partners. Brinkin also managed the commission’s multi-year investigation of

Badlands, a popular Castro neighborhood bar that in 2004 faced allegations of racial discrimination. Owner Les Natali has steadfastly denied the discrimination charges and the case was eventually settled

through mediation. Reached by phone Tuesday, HRC Executive Director Theresa Sparks said, “Overall, I have no comment, obviously, professionally, but personally I think it’s just a very, very sad commentary, a very sad situation. I’m heartbroken it happened.” Sparks said she doesn’t believe his plea will affect his pension, but “I’m not an expert on that. I have no idea.” Knox said that Brinkin should continue to receive his pension from the city, since “this is not a moral turpitude crime,” and it’s “not something that happened when he was working for the city.” As part of Brinkin’s probation, officials would be able to monitor his computer use, and he’d be ordered to participate in outpatient sexual offender therapy, among other conditions.t

Rick Gerharter

Tristram Savage swept up at the recycling center at the Safeway at Market and Church streets in this August 2013 file photo.

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

South Bay health

From page 3

health and more. Additionally, researchers examined issues related to health, such as access to healthcare, social services, housing, community cohesion, economic status, domestic violence, social acceptance, and many other factors that directly or indirectly affect individuals’ health and well-being. Yeager and Cody wouldn’t say how often the county would conduct targeted surveys of the LGBT community’s health. However, Yeager told the B.A.R. that the county is adding the sexual orientation and gender identity question to some other department surveys this year. He speculated that might be a better way of gathering information about the South Bay’s diverse and spread out LGBT community than a targeted survey of the queer community in the future. “I just want to make sure that the LGBT community has the best services that they can [get],” said Yeager.

Clinic reopens

14-792

In other Santa Clara health news, the Crane Center, a community health clinic that served the LGBT community until 2009, reopened a few months ago. The clinic closed due to budget cuts during the economic downturn, said Cody. The clinic is located in the TB Clinic/Refugee Health Assessment Program’s office, 976 Lenzen Avenue, Suite 1800, San Jose. It is open on Mondays from 1 to 7 p.m. To make an appointment, call (408) 792-3720. To read the health survey, visit http://tinyurl.com/kt474f5.t

Film noir city

Back to school

Out &About

Leto's Oscar bid

O&A

The

Vol. 44 • No. 4 • January 23-29, 2014

www.ebar.com/arts

by David Lamble

he Last Match (La Partida), opening Friday, kicks off the 2014 film season with a bang. It’s a gorgeously filmed, tragic melodrama about Cuban rent-boys who break the rules of their exceedingly rough trade, and fall deeply and quite desperately for each other. See page 20 >>

Reinier (Reinier Diaz) and Yosvani (Milton Garcia) in director Antonio Hens’ The Last Match.

Maturity of an ingénue by Richard Dodds

Broadway and screen veteran Anita Gillette is making her cabaret debut with After All, coming to Feinstein’s at the Nikko on Jan. 30.

nita Gillette was one of Broadway’s go-to ingénues in the 1960s, even if the roles were often in musicals that audiences themselves weren’t inclined to go to. But even a notorious flop like Kelly is good for an anecdote as Gillette travels a long stage and screen career in her first-ever cabaret show playing Feinstein’s at the Nikko on Jan. 30. “When we were putting this act together,” Gillette said of After All, “I insisted I wasn’t going to get up on that stage if I couldn’t be funny. I insisted on keeping all my jokes in the show.” Gillette has all sorts of tales to tell about working with the likes of Ethel Merman, David Merrick, Irving Berlin, Neil Simon, and Woody Allen during those ingénue years. For example, she was pregnant when playing Dainty June in Gypsy, her Broadway debut, and producer Merrick was ready to give her the heave-ho. But Ethel Merman stepped in on her behalf. “The kid stays,” Merman commanded. The 1960s provided her with numerous Broadway credits, including Irving Berlin’s Mr. President, the Ray Bolger vehicle All American, and Woody Allen’s Don’t Drink the Water. But both Gillette and Broadway were growing past their ingénue years, and Gillette set out on a new track.

“I had to stop singing to be taken seriously as an actress,” Gillette said from her home in New York. It was a strategy that worked on Broadway, as she landed the female lead in Neil Simon’s Chapter Two and on screen as Vincent Gardenia’s mistress in Moonstruck. Steady work in films and television carried her forward, and now she’s getting a lot of mom roles, from Tina Fey’s mother in 30 Rock to John Goodman’s mother in Normal, Ohio to Edward Burns’ mother in The Fitzgerald Family Christmas. And she’s hoping for a return to Modern Family, in which she had a choice guest spot in last season’s finale as a romantic interest for the recently widowed character played by Fred Willard. “I haven’t heard anything, but I’ve been watching the show and he’s been dating hookers. And one of the characters says he should go back to the character I played. So there’s hope.” Her cabaret show After All has freed her up to release all that music that she had kept in storage. She’s been fine-tuning the act since its 2012 debut at New York’s Birdland and a follow-up last year at the Metropolitan Room (which may be released on CD), with a repertoire that includes Broadway songs that help illustrate or poke fun at her life, novelty songs that show off her often-saucy comedic chops, and quieter songs when the subject of loss arises. See page 24 >>

{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS }

The BEST is yet to come

<< Out There

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

To be young, gifted & gay by Roberto Friedman

he new HBO series Looking premiered at the Castro Theatre before its first broadcast last week, and Out There was in the house. A fun and lively take on what it’s like to be young and gay in 2014 San Francisco, it reminded us of when we were young, had a flat stomach and a full head of hair. In fact, one of the revelations for OT was how many of these young actors sported facial hair. In OT’s day, young men did not wear lumberjack beards. Only communists, ethnic types and drug addicts wore long beards. Since OT was more or less all three, we got a free pass. After the episodes, moderator K.C. Price from Frameline took the stage for a Q&A with executive producer Andrew Haigh (Weekend), co-executive producer Michael Lannan, and comely stars Jonathan Groff, Frankie J. Alvarez, and Murray Bartlett. If Groff as Patrick is the series’ Mary Tyler Moore, then Alvarez as Agustin is the series’ Rhoda. Settling down in Oakland with his hubby, who knows?, Agustin may yet spin off into a series of his own. Ten brownie points for including Esta Noche. Minus 10 points each for scenes at the Press Club and Doc’s Clock. Big love for the threeway and penetrating “the gumdrop” Demerits for the quickie hand-job in Boner Vista Park. At the glamorous afterparty in The Café, OT and Pepi mingled with HBO suits just up from LA, as well as with a smattering of SF personages: Tom Horn and Cesar Alexzander, Bevan Dufty and Corey Lambert,

Jon Ginoli of Pansy Division, Donna Sachet, and similar men-abouttown. We were especially delighted to see the go-go boy wearing an oversized plushy/furry head who had a small role in the TV show putting in an appearance on The Café’s runway. Gay life imitates gay TV.

tions, of course, as a cautionary tale. But it’s more than that, it’s a complex psychological study.

Happy CNY

In the drink

Recently in The New York Times Book Review, writer Lawrence Osborne reviewed The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking, a new book by author Olivia Laing just out from Picador. The book looks at the alcoholism of six famous writers: John Cheever, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Raymond Carver. The dipsomania of writers is a subject that fascinates Out There. Osborne points out that writerly alcoholism is rather a cliché at this point, and conjectures that this “was perhaps sealed in the popular American imagination by Charles R. Jackson’s underrated 1944 novel The Lost Weekend and the subsequent overrated Billy Wilder film of the following year.” As it happens, OT was right in the middle of reading Jackson’s novel; having just finished it, we have a few observations to share. We read a paperback edition of the novel published last year in conjunction with a new biography of its author, Farther and Wilder: The Lost Weekends and Literary Dreams of Charles Jackson by Blake Bailey (Knopf). The biography makes clear that Jackson, though a loving

Steven Underhill

Looking actors Murray Bartlett, Jonathan Groff and Frankie J. Alvarez onstage at the Castro Theatre during the world premiere of the new HBO series.

husband and father, and capable of being quite charming to boot, was a tormented alcoholic whose downward spiral eventually led to his death from a drug overdose, at 65. Further, Bailey is quite explicit in his conviction that Jackson’s closeted homosexuality, and his feeling like a social pariah in midcentury America because of it, contributed to his unhealthy addictions. Prize-winning biographer Bailey (he also authored a biography of Cheever) wrote the introduction to the new edition of Lost Weekend, and it’s fascinating to read the tragic tale of protagonist Don Birnam with this new perspective in mind. It’s clear that Birnam is tormented by repressed homosexual yearnings. Late in life, Jackson admitted that the book was almost wholly autobiographical. Birnam traces his outof-control behavior to having been publicly shamed while at college for

having had a crush on one of his fraternity brothers. He remembers incidents in Provincetown. And he protests too much after an encounter with a gay nurse in the hospital: “That was the trouble with homos, and he didn’t mean sapiens either. They were always so damned anxious to suspect every guy they couldn’t make of merely playing hard-to-get.” Reading Lost Weekend was no bowl of cherries for us, and we imagine it’s a daunting proposition for any dipsomaniac to witness the tragedy as Don descends into his personal hell. Its litany of symptoms and syndromes – the self-destructive and self-defeating stratagems of the alcoholic mind – will ring bells with any “problem drinker.” Moreover, because most of the book is set inside Don’s psyche during a five-day bender, there’s precious little relief from the claustrophobia of mental illness. For drinkers everywhere, TLW func-

We sampled the Chinese New Year menu at Hakkasan San Francisco during a media preview lunch last week, and can recommend the special menu items, which will be available from Jan. 29-Feb. 8 in celebration of the Year of the Horse. The CNY menu is rooted in traditional presentations, and everything on it is freighted with symbolism. For example, the steamed sea snapper with salted plum in Teochew style is offered as a whole fish, which guarantees longevity in Chinese lore. Stewed pork trotters with black moss in brown sauce portend a good return on investments. Braised Chinese cabbage with mixed mushrooms stands for safety in the new year; and wok-fired jumbo prawns with long beans presage fun. Crab meat brings good fortune. It was our own good fortune to be invited to this lunch. Gung hei fat choy!t

Sam Harris hams it up by Adam Sandel

am Harris was the first American Idol, 20 years before American Idol existed. His big break came when his Motown-tinged rendition of “Over the Rainbow” earned him the title of grand champion singer on the premier 1983 season of the talent competition show Star Search. Thirty years, a Motown contract,

nine studio albums, and innumerable stage and concert appearances later, Harris has added “author” to his list of credentials with the publication of his book Ham: Slices of a Life. But this performer with a bigger-than-life presence, who counts Liza Minnelli among his bffs, is not about to settle for a mere book-signing. He’s crafted a one-man musical show around the book that he’ll bring to Feinstein’s on

Fri. & Sat., Jan. 24 & 25. “The book is not really a memoir, it’s an eclectic collection of stories and essays about childhood, show biz, parenthood, and celebrities,” he says. “The unifying element is ham.” Harris’ love of the spotlight also suggests that the title refers to more than pork. “There’s no denying it. “The show is a very theatrical combination of excerpts from the

enizing talent into book with songs that something that alare appropriate to ready exists. Some the book,” he says. of the other shows “The music includes don’t allow indiBroadway, pop, spevidualism to shine cial material and through.” songs that I’ve reThe experience corded. The challenge that has most prois turning a 305-page foundly shaped manuscript into a Harris is being a one-man show.” father. He and JaTo this day, Harris cobsen adopted can’t get off the stage without performing Sam Harris has published a their son Cooper in 2008. “Over the Rainbow.” book, Ham: Slices of a Life. “He’s my favorite “I have the good forsubject,” he says of tune to be stuck with his five-year-old son. “Parenthood is it, since it’s the greatest song ever the greatest, most thrilling, challengwritten,” he says. “The meaning of ing, and exhausting experience. He the song constantly changes acinspires me to be my best person. I cording to what’s happening in the have to be a good citizen and human world and in my life.” being, and a role model at all times. And 2014 is the ideal year for And he makes me laugh all the time.” Harris to wax retrospective. “It’s Being a dad also knocked some of been 30 years since Star Search, 20 the diva tendencies out of him. “I’ve years since I’ve been with my partalways been a multi-tasker, but I used ner Danny Jacobsen [they married to get very myopic about what I was in 2008], and 10 years since I’ve doing, like if I had a show that night, been sober. These are all hallmark I wouldn’t speak until 3 p.m. But moments of my life.” with a kid, that’s virtually impossible. Growing up gay in the small town I worked on this book on a treadmill, of Cushing, Oklahoma, was not with cartoons in the background, without its challenges. “The misfit and driving him to school.” thing was in full force,” he says. “My Harris is also grateful to be gay, father had a collection of big band married, and raising a child today. “I and blues records, so my influences get to be on the right side of history. were a peculiar amalgam of BroadWhen I come across something antiway musicals, Aretha Franklin, and gay and disparaging, I don’t turn the Billie Holliday. I grew up wanting to other cheek any more. I want to crebe Jewish, blind, and to sing.” ate a standard of consciousness and Since Harris shot to fame on one ethics to teach him. I have no paof the first television talent competitience for ignorance and bigotry.”t tions, he has an insider’s perspective on the glut of post-Idol shows that currently flood the airwaves. Sam Harris, Ham: Slices of a Life, “I’m for anything that provides Fri., Jan. 24 at 8 p.m., Sat., Jan. 25 at 7 p.m., Feinstein’s at the a platform for new talent,” he says. Nikko, 222 Mason St., SF “I really love The Voice because it Tickets ($25-$35): ticketweb.com celebrates original talent vs. homog-

Theatre>>

January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Money & gunpowder by Richard Dodds

f you put Mahatma Gandhi and Dick Cheney in a room together with George Bernard Shaw, it would be hard to predict who would emerge wearing a shawl and who might be carrying a hunting rifle. In Major Barbara, Shaw anticipates the military-industrial complex, and he almost has us rooting for a plowshares-to-swords philosophy. Such is the scope of Shaw’s dramatic capacity that he can still send heads spinning 109 years after setting forth this socio-economic satire. Surprisingly enough, ACT is only now paying its first visit to Major Barbara in its nearly half-century history. The intellectual muscle and stately manner of Shaw’s play befit ACT’s persona, and this co-production with Theatre Calgary succeeds in filling the stage with both scope of production and the thoughtful intensity of delivery. There’s no escaping the fact that the first act is thick with exposition needed to set up the verbal fireworks that come after the intermission. But Shavian wit still has abundant opportunity to assert itself, most broadly in the form of Lady Britomart Undershaft, who could be a close relative of

Pak Han

Gretchen Hall (center), as the title character in ACT’s Major Barbara, is horrified when her Salvation Army superior accepts a check from her arms-dealing father (Dean Paul Gibson).

Oscar Wilde’s Lady Bracknell. Played with haughty assurance by Kandis Chappell, Lady Undershaft completes any questions with preemptive answers as she goes about her mission of securing sufficient income for her grown daughters. This requires the unsavory business of engaging

with her estranged husband to secure the necessary funds. Lord Undershaft, played with a Mephistophelian twinkle by Dean Paul Gibson, just happens to be an arms merchant whose allegiance is to the highest bidder. While his family tut-tuts at his amorality, they accept

his largesse. Their opinions have no intellectual value to him, except in the case of daughter Barbara, whose mission with the Salvation Army to feed the hungry provides him a challenge worthy of his time. He sees a form of religious bribery in every piece of bread that the Salvation Army hands

out, and his readily accepted offer of a sizable donation throws Barbara off her righteous path. In the early scenes, Gretchen Hall creates a steely Barbara secure in her beliefs, and she retains this strength even as she becomes an intense observer of the moral drama playing out around her. Other than Undershaft himself, the men in Barbara’s life are more milquetoast than masculine, but they are amusingly assayed by Stafford Perry as her brother and Nicholas Pelczar as her fiance. Director Dennis Garnhum’s production ratchets up several notches after the intermission as aerial bombs hang in Daniel Ostling’s set like chandeliers at a munitions factory, while Gibson’s Undershaft commandeers the stage with a riveting display of mercenary logic that is both seductive and repellant. That Shaw’s progressive social views are so well known helps provide context for the unnerving collisions of ideas. “Blood and Fire” is the Salvation Army’s motto, and as Undershaft notes, it’s a credo he is all too happy to adopt.t Major Barbara will run at ACT through Feb. 2. Tickets are $20-$140. Call 749-2228 or go to act-sf.org.

The booty don’t lie

by Richard Dodds

hen you’ve seen one fecal accident after a booty bump, you’ve seen them all. It’s called “deja poo.” In the cause of full disclosure, more a matter of social deprivation than rectitude, I thought anal ingestion of crystal meth was a plot gag created for Shit and Champagne. A post-show Google search on “booty bump” clearly places the term (and the methodology) in the contemporary vernacular, but I concluded my research before discovering if soiled trousers are a telltale side effect. But they are most certainly in Shit and Champagne, D’arcy Drollinger’s go-for-broke, in-your-face, damnthe-torpedoes comedy at Rebel Bar. “You’re going to be burning rubber down the Hershey highway,” a pusher promises a potential user/victim before getting his booty bumped. The description of the show so far suggests an ample taste for the tasteless, but the indelicacy is backed up

by several explosive performances, technical finesse, and a knowing wink that invokes call-and-response with the audience. Drollinger first presented Shit and Champagne in New York in 2006 before resuming residence in San Francisco, and it’s not difficult to see why he was drawn to remount it here. He has written a show that provides him with a tailor-made role that he fills with tour-de-force skillful abandon. He plays Champagne Horowitz Jones Dickerson White, a stripper at a seedy club who becomes a vengeful dynamo when first her fiance is murdered, and then her adopted half-sister, a world-famous leg model, is fatally shot in the calves. Shit and Champagne, dubbed a “whitesploitation” satire, takes its lead from such 1970s films as Coffy, Foxy Brown, and Cleopatra Jones, and it comes adorned with a nonstop name-that-tune soundtrack. Crisp sound and light cues by Mi-

chael Blythe, astoundingly quick changes in and out of Cindy Goldfield and Jessica Lansdown’s costumes and Jason Rail’s wigs, and slickly staged fight scenes staged by John Ficarra belie the seemingly carefree, groan-laden trajectory of the script directed by Drollinger and Laurie Bushman. While Rotimi Agbabiaka and Alex Brown play stumblebum

henchmen, Matthew Martin deliciously provides the main villainy as Dixie Stampede, a corporate mogul of Rockettes-style high kicks who controls a discount-priced prostitution empire with some booty bumping on the side. Nancy French is wonderfully droll as the terminally bored announcer of scenes, while Steven LeMay displays strong comedy skills in a trio of roles.

ANITA GILLETTE

LESLIE JORDAN

LADY RIZO

January 31

D’Arcy Drollinger plays a vengeful stripper in the “whitesploitation” satire Shit and Champagne at Rebel Bar.

Shit and Champagne will run at Rebel Bar through Feb. 8. Tickets are $20-$25, available at shitandchampgne.eventbrite. com.

SAM HARRIS January 24 - 25

Mathu Anderson

Let no prospective theatergoers be misled: a touch of class this ain’t. But Shit and Champagne might just be the comedic bump that a booty needs now and then.t

January 30

February 6 - 7

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

089285.01_HNSF_Feinstein’s_Bay_Area_Reporter_1_23 ROUND #: MECH

<< Film

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

Last Match

From page 17

Reinier (newcomer Reinier Diaz) is a slim-waisted, sly manipulator, a man-boy who in any other Western society would be a top-flight model, an indie actor, or one of those insanely lovely football (soccer) forwards whom everybody watches disrobe on top of a post-game scrim of hunky teammates. This being contemporary Havana, Reinier is basically fucked: either he hooks up with a non-Cuban “Daddy,” convinces a sports agent to smuggle him off the island, or takes a chance on a leaky boat. Otherwise, life will roll on in a shabby flat he shares with an empty fridge, a dutiful wife, an infant son he hardly ever sees, and a harpy mother-in-law who screams bloody murder ever time he takes her precious boom-box radio to the pawnshop. During the day, Reinier plays pickup football with a gaggle of kids in the hood, each kicking the ball barefoot or in flip-flops through a shabby goal tended by a tiny kid. At night, as he tells his wife, it’s off “to the mines,” meaning Havana’s historic harbor, where a small mob of queens, queers and rough-trade straight boys hovers around the occasional well-heeled tourist. The other half of our duo is the handsome but enigmatic Yosvani. Actor Milton Garcia has a deft feel for this deeply frustrated young

man, whose rage can suddenly come cascading down on an unsuspecting target like a late-summer afternoon rainstorm. Yosvani is living with his fiancee and her bullying loan-shark thug of a dad, Silvano. As Silvano, veteran actor Luis Alberto Garcia is deliciously hateful as a posturing macho con-man who tempts young men with American consumer crap priced beyond their means, with interest tacked on. Silvano, who suspects every kid of being a secret faggot, exploits his prospective sonin-law unmercifully, failing to give Yosvani even a sub-minimum wage, while displaying the wiles and philosophy of a classic bullshit artist. At first, Reinier and Yosvani resist the temptation to ball each other, but in the shabby universe they’re trapped in, a brutal “thugocracy” run by swine like Silvano, being a straight man starts to lose its appeal. In some ways, igniting a carnal relationship with each other has appeal precisely because with each other they are neither serfs nor whores. Early in the second act, about 37 minutes into the movie, Reinier penetrates Yosvani. Director Antonio Hens’ camera fixes on that almost indescribable blend of pain becoming pleasure that flashes over Yosvani’s face as, for the first time, he finds his center. As the late screenwriting guru Syd Field would say, “progressive complications” ensue, and our boys will have only the briefest taste of their own personal Nirvana before the

Reinier (Reinier Diaz) and Yosvani (Milton Garcia) in director Antonio Hens’ The Last Match.

world rushes in. The Spanish-born Hens and cowriter Abel Gonzalez Melo keep our spirits engaged as the boys head for a fall by cleverly borrowing from some of the best recent examples of young men’s dreams turning sour. From Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, Hens and Melo give us a feckless duo complemented by a delusional mother figure, in this case a scheming, increasingly unhinged mother-in-law. As in Dream, Mom’s meltdown is worth waiting for. In this case, it comes with a large butcher knife as a key, almost campy prop. From Alfonso Cuaron’s Y Tu Mama Tambien, we get dueling portraits of attractive young guys who don’t necessarily tip their hand as to their sexual orientation, but who act passionately when the opportunity presents itself. As with Michael Cuesta’s extraordinary 9/11-era drama L.I.E., it becomes increasingly irrelevant whether the boys are gay or straight. Another rather odd example of borrowing comes from an even more unlikely source, Sydney Lu-

met’s Holocaust classic The Pawnbroker. Here again, a young man will have access to a wily, unscrupulous merchant’s secret stash of cash, with tragic consequences. Ironically, it is precisely when you can detect large swaths of creative homage, theft or borrowing that you know you’re watching an original work of art of stunning intelligence and originality, whose authors have nothing to apologize for. With The Last Match, Hens and Melo make it painfully as well as deliciously (with their passionate erotic beats) apparent how badly a class of citizens, gay men in this case, has been screwed, betrayed by a once-idealistic revolutionary movement whose leaders grievously outstayed their welcome or overplayed the hand dealt them by history. This film is no cheap-shot orgy of Castro-bashing; actually there are no representatives of President Raul Castro’s now-pragmatic regime anywhere in sight. The filmmakers understand that the best portrait of a society often emerges from an unflinching look at the fate of its humblest denizens.

Early in the film, Vosvani gets a lovely gift from his wife: a pair of high-end Adidas athletic shoes. Proudly wearing them to their weed-strewn little football pitch, he is verbally assaulted by jealous teammates, boys who are kept out of the expensive tourist-destination discos because they’re wearing flip-flops. Later that night when his threewheel motorcycle stalls out, Yosvani is physically assaulted by three thugs who take his money and, more importantly, his precious shoes. Like the real-life Matthew Shepard assaulted, raped and stripped of his shoes in Morocco, Yosvani suffers a psychic wound. In his case, it’s a wound that will ultimately shortcircuit his normally cautious nature and cause him to risk everything for a love he could at this point never even imagine possible. The film, with its award-caliber leads, is also interesting for its supporting ensemble, including Reinier’s handsome, soccer-playing john, seamlessly realized by veteran Spanish heartthrob Toni Canto, Lola in Pedro Almodovar’s classic All About My Mother.t

Young men on the lam

by David Lamble

f you enjoy Spanish director Antonio Hens’ explosive new feature The Last Match, about the romantic hijinks of straight-identified Cuban rent-boys, you might check out an earlier mixed-genre piece. Hens’ Clandestinos kicks off like one of those old Warner Bros. young-hoodlum melodramas, say The Bowery Boys. In Hens’ version, three teen punks – a Mexican, a Moroccan, and a Spanish boy who fancies himself a Basque terrorist – rough up the guards and take it on the lam. Xabi is determined to reunite with a grizzled old terrorist commander on whom he has developed a huge Daddy crush. After an assortment of mishaps – including tricking with a cop, whose gun he swipes – Xabi and the Moroccan boy set off a homemade explosive in downtown Madrid. The boys’ kitchen-pot bomb bears an uneasy resemblance to those in the Boston Marathon attacks. Just when you think you see where this one is going, it takes a rather funny right-turn into Almodovarstyle farce. Overall, this 84-minute sexy caper doesn’t overstay its welcome, and provides an early glimpse of a talented filmmaker in the making. Bonus: Stills gallery (TLA).t

Music>>

January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Intrigung intentions of Mason Bates by Philip Campbell

his tenderly sweet phrasing had me wishing he had been offered a bigger assignment. MTT reminded us of his fresh and bouncy attention to Beethoven’s rhythmic tensions with a wonderful reading of the Overture to King Stephen, but it was the concluding event of the festival that proved most satisfying. A wonderful quartet of soloists, including a strong Joelle Harvey, soprano; excellent mezzo Kelley O’Connor; reliable and beautifully clear-toned tenor William Burden; and richly sonorous bass-baritone Shenyang, joined with MTT, the SFS and Ragnar Bohlin’s well-drilled SFS Chorus for a fine rendition of the Mass in C Major, Opus 86. If there was any real parallel to be made between Mason Bates and Beethoven, it was that both composers share bold aspirations and a willingness to test boundaries. The Mass in C doesn’t get performed very often, but it still tells us you don’t necessarily need religion to express deep inspiration. Beethoven also had an obsession for getting things right. Let us see if Mason Bates follows in his footsteps.t

he San Francisco Symphony with Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and composer Mason Bates has just completed a twoweek Beethoven and Bates festival that was conveniently multi-tasked for exciting concert performances and productive live-recording sessions. Pairing the music of Bates, wellknown for his club DJ work and increasing forays into electronica and symphonic composition, with the works of the undisputed master of the symphonic form may have seemed like a stretch if comparisons were meant to be made, but the flipflop feeling of the programming on paper really demonstrated more about attitude and inspiration than individual talent, and both composers ultimately shared the stage in mutual comfort. Previous experience with the highly attractive sound designs and meticulous sampling of Mason Bates has revealed his intriguing intentions, and has offered promising hints of where his compositional technique is heading. The pop inflections of his orchestral writing are always appealing and downright pretty, but often lack much in the way of gravitas. He seldom tackles small subjects, though, and he has some wonderful ideas. The results just seem a bit timid at times, and curiously disconnected from his lofty programmatic aims. When I last heard him performed in Davies Symphony Hall with Mass Transmission (a large-scale work for full chorus and electronica) premiered during the American Mavericks festival of 2012, it was apparent the young composer was not lacking ambition. If it seemed a somewhat superficial and hesitant work, it was not without moments of exquisite loveliness and heartfelt emotion. The recent Beethoven and Bates festival at DSH showed more depth to Bates than I recalled, and reawakened my desire to hear more of what he has to say. The concerts also vindicated MTT’s continuing advocacy. The latest hearing at DSH of The B-Sides (2009) has been mentioned by more than one commentator in the same breath with Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra, but again, comparisons are hardly in order. Is Bates successful in creating a listenable and similarly concise set for contemporary orchestra? The answer is a delighted yes. The addition of electronic samples also gives a unique edge to the strongly contrasting movements. I like the term “IDM” or “intelligent dance music” as it has been applied to Bates’ sound, and it is especially useful when describing large sections of Liquid Interface (2007), which received its first SFS performances last week. It is a big attempt to approximate something like the tone poems of Richard Strauss (yet another big comparison), and it does indeed have a lot of cheek (and a wind machine, too!). It is also an earlier work and noticeably less accomplished than The B-Sides. The recording of Liquid Interface will be valuable in a future appraisal of Bates’ oeuvre. Those really catchy tunes and sparkling orchestration should sound just as seductive on disc as they do in the concert hall. The subtle inspiration Bates draws from film and television composers of the 1960s also guarantees future listens. There is a beauty and majesty in Liquid Interface that is a direct result of the composer’s sampling. In other days it might have been called sound effects, but who cares,

Todd Rosenberg

Composer Mason Bates.

if it gives meaning and depth to the score? So what about Ludwig van’s part of the festival? Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik had a chance to shine with the two infrequently performed Romances (Opus 40 and 50), and

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<< Out&About

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

Jason Brock, Kim Nalley @ Hotel Rex

O&A

Society Cabaret presents the gay vocal powerhouse, and a guest appearance by the talented jazz songstress, accompanied by pianist Dwight Okamura. $26-$45. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. 857-1896. www.societycabaret.com

Out &About

Fri 24 Dance Brigade

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

Lesbian/Gay Chorus Benefit @ McElroy Architecture LGCSF board member Tom McElroy screens several of his short films at a fundraiser for the local chorus. Donations. 8pm. 485 14th St. www.lgcsf.org

Linda Ronstadt @ Mayer Theatre, Santa Clara

Thu 30 Jess Curtis/Gravity

Snowball effect

Sven Hagolani

by Jim Provenzano

he sheer variety of talents performing this week should help us all expand our appreciation that while others were focused on the holidays, as winter approached, many theatre, music and visual artists toiled away to present an entirely new slew of shows. The fact that some of the most interesting and talented folks are often performing on the same nights may require the flip of a coin, or a clone, to decide.

Thu 23

Fri 24

Cirque du Soleil @ Taylor Street Bridge, San Jose

Angélique Kidjo @ Kanbar Hall

The popular creative circus show’s latest spectacle, Amaluna, has moved to the South Bay leg of its tour. $45-$130 and up (VIP tix). Thru Mar. 2. cirquedusoleil.com

Enjoy a night of conversation and songs with the amazing Grammy-winning vocalist and author, who’s accompanied by the John Santos Sextet. The event also includes a post-show feast of West African street food, drinks and design displays. $35. 8pm. Jewish Community Center, 3200 California st. 292-1200. www.jccsf.org

Emanuel Ax, Anne Sofie von Otter @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley The virtuoso pianist and the acclaimed soprano perform works by Brahms, Mazzoli and Muhly. $30-$125. 8pm. UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. (510) 642-9988. calperformances.org

Jerusalem @ SF Playhouse Local production of Jez Butterworth’s Tony and Olivier-winning witty family drama. $20-$100. Tue & Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm, Sun 2pm. Thru March 8. 450 Powell St., 2nd. floor. 677-9596. sfplayhouse.org

Joan Ryan @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The accomplished stage, TV and film actress performs her nuanced cabaret show. $30-$40. 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

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

SF Sketchfest @ Castro Theatre The massive multi-venue comedy festival returns. Opening night events include the Napoleon Dynamite 10th Anniversary with several cast members and an onstage Q&A ($25. 7pm), and a tribute to the comic musical duo Tenacious D, with Jack Black and Kyle Gass, moderator Paul F. Tompkins. ($25, 9:30pm). 429 Castro St. 621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com Full festival (thru Feb. 9) schedule at www.sfsketchfest.com

Student, Faculty Concerts @ SF Music Conservatory Clarinetist Jeff Anderle and pianist Kate Campbell perform chamber works, Jan. 23, 8pm, free. Faculty concert of modern works, Jan. 27, 8pm, $15-$20. Cello master class, Jan. 28, 2:30pm. Baroque Opera lecture by Nicholas George, Jan. 28, 8pm, free. Voice Dept. students, Jan. 29, 7:30pm. 50 Oak St. 503-6215. sfcm.edu

Unusual Films @ Oddball Films Retro short films Thu & Fri, both $10, 8pm. 275 Capp St. 558-8117. oddballfilms. blogspot.com

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

Dance Brigade @ Dance Mission Theater The politically vibrant women’s dance company presents Hemorrhage: An Ablution of Hope and Despair, a dance installation that explores local and world politics. $15-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 6pm. Thru Feb. 8. 3316 24th St. at Mission. (800) 838-3005. www.dancebrigade.org www.dancemission.com

Foodies, the Musical @ Shelton Theater Morris Bobrow’s musical comedy revue of songs and sketches about food. $32-$34. Fri & Sat 8pm. Open run. 533 Sutter St. (800) 838-3006. www.foodiesthemusical.com

Sat 25 Lucky7 @ Queer Open Mic

The Grammy Award-winning singersongwriter discusses her new book, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, in conversation with San Jose Mercury News Editor Barbara Marshman. $20-$75 (includes a signed book). 7pm. Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real. www.commonwealthclub.org

Mily Trabing

Major Barbara @ Geary Theatre American Conservatory Theatre presents a co-production with Theatre Calgary of George Bernard Shaw’s classic satirical play of morality and religion, centered around a Salvation Army official who must confront her organization when it takes donations from a weapons manufacturer. (Special nights include LGBT Out with A.C.T. Jan. 22). $20-$140. Thru Feb. 2. 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Man in a Case @ Berkeley Repertory Mikhail Baryshnikov stars in Annie B Parson and Paul Lazar’s theatre-dance-music adaptation of two short stories by Anton Chekhov. $45-$125. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed 7pm. Sun 2pm (Jan. 25 7pm). Thru Feb. 26. Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Noir City @ Castro Theatre 12th annual festival of dark, seedy, tragic black and white underground classics and obscure thrillers films from the 1940s1960s. Thru Feb. 2. $10 each. 429 Castro St. 621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com

The Oy of Sex @ The Marsh Alicia Dattner’s solo show explores her life with ex-boyfriends, family, love addiction, and how they all sometimes clash. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 8:30pm. $20-$100. Thru Feb 22. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

The Paris Letter @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Jon Robin Baitz’ drama about a Wall Street powerhouse who finds his personal and professional life threatened by the unraveling secrets of his past. Previews; opening night Jan. 25. $25-$45. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Feb. 23. 25 Van Ness Ave. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

The Pornographer’s Daughter @ Z Below Liberty Bradford Mitchell’s one-woman show tells her story of growing up on the fringes of an X-rated world as the daughter of notorious pornography pioneer Artie Mitchell; performed with the three-piece band The Fluffers. $32. Thu-Sat 8pm. Also Sat 10pm. Sun 5pm. Thru Feb. 16. 470 Florida St. www.PDtheplay.com

Sam Harris @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The talented singer-songwriter, TV and Broadway actor performs Ham: Slices of a Life, his autobiographical musical cabaret show. $25-$35. Also Jan. 25, 7pm. 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.ticketweb.com

The Spinners @ Yoshi’s The classic soul and R&B quintet performs their hits like “I’ll Be Around,” and “One of a Kind (Love Affair)” at the elegant nightclub-restaurant. $39-$77. 8pm & 10pm. Also Jan. 25. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Ubu Roi @ Exit on Taylor Cutting Ball Theater’s production of Alfred Jarry’s 1896 parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (the original premiere induced riots, and is considered a pivotal early experimental absurd comedy), newly translated by Rob Melrose. $10-$50. Thu 7:30, Fri & Sat 8pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 5pm. Thru Feb. 23. 277 Taylor St. 525-1205. www.cuttingball.com

Sat 25 The Art of Bulgari @ de Young Museum La Dolce Vita & Beyond, an exhibit of 150 pieces of exquisite Italian jewelry made between 1950 and 1990, including gems from Elizabeth Taylor’s personal collection. Thru Feb 17. $10-$25. Tue-Sun 9:30am5:15pm. (til 8:45pm Fridays) Thru Dec. 30. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. 750-3600. www.famsf.org

Barry Lloyd @ Hotel Rex Talented vocalist, dubbed the “Crown Prince of Cabaret,” performs at the elegant hotel’s lounge. $25-$45. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. 857-1896. www.societycabaret.com

Bay Area Travel & Adventure Show @ Santa Clara Convention Center Large-scale showcase of travel companies and products, including lectures and signings by notable travel celebrities Rick Steves, Patrica Schultz and Jeff Adam. $10-$15. Kids under 16 free. 10am-5pm. Jan. 26, 11am-4pm. 5001 Great American Parkway, Santa Clara. adventureexpo.com

Out&About>>

January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

Can You Dig It? @ The Marsh Berkeley

Magnificent Magnolias @ SF Botanical Gardens

Peking Acrobats @ Zellerbach Hall

Sean Strub @ Books Inc., Other Venues

Don Reed’s autobiographical solo show explores the 1960s: Beatles, Black Panthers, MLK, JFK and the KKK. $20-$50. Sat 8:30pm and Sun 7pm thru Feb. 2. 2120 Allston Way. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

See blooming magnolia trees and exhibits. Special events include a Lunar New Year Celebration, Jan. 25, 9am-3pm. walking tours and more. Thru March 31. Also, hundreds of species of native wildflowers in a century-old grove of towering Coast Redwoods. Free-$15. Daily. Golden Gate Park. 6612-1316. www.SFBotanicalGarden.org

The amazing acrobats, known for extraordinary feats of balance, return with a spectacle-filled show. $22-$56 (kids under 16 half-price). 2pm & 8pm. Also Jan. 26, 3pm. UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

The prominent AIDS activist and publisher of POZ Magazine reads from and discusses his compelling memoir, Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS, and Survival. Cosponsored by the HIV Story Project. 7:30pm. 2275 Market St. 8646777. www.booksinc.net Strub will also be at the Luncheon Society, Jan. 30, 12pm, Fior d’Italia, 2237 Mason St. 986-1886. Also Jan. 30, 7pm, at Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave. (831) 460-3232. www.bookshopsantacruz.com Also Jan. 31, 7pm at the Let’s KickASS (AIDS Survivor Syndrome) event, LGBT Center, 1800 Market St. 865-5555. www.sfcenter.org www.SeanStrub.com

Feral Creatures @ Modern Eden Gallery Colorful group exhibit, curated by Stephanie Chefas, full of unusual, contemporary, painterly and sculptural animal imagery (artists include Michael Alm, JAW Cooper, Peter Gronquist, Michael Page, Caitlin Hackett, Anita Kunz, Christina Mrozik, Jason Wheatley, Zoe Williams, and Kikyz1313). Reg. hours Tue-Sat 10am6pm. Thru Feb. 8. www.moderneden.com

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

Mark Cantor’s Giants of Jazz @ Kanbar Hall The film and music archivist shows clips from performances by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Buddy rich and others. $25. 8pm. Jewish Community Center, 3200 California st. 292-1200. www.jccsf.org

Queer Open Mic @ Modern Times Bookstore Baruch Porras-Hernandez and Blythe Baldwin cohost the monthly eclectic reading and performance series, this time with featured guests Lucky7 and musician Jade Way. Free. Sign-up 7pm. Show at 7:30pm. 2919 24th St. www.queeropenmic.com

SF Hiking Club @ Purisima Creek Join GLBT hikers for a 9-mile hike through forests of firs, tanoaks, and redwoods, into deep canyons, and on some steep hills. Along the Harkins Ridge, North Ridge, and Whittemore Gulch trails, enjoy lovely views of the forest and the ocean. Bring water, lunch, layers, hat, sturdy boots. Carpool meets 9am at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. 794-2275. www.sfhiking.com

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

Our Vast Queer Past @ GLBT History Museum See the exhibit, Vicki Marlane: I’m Your Lady, which displays video, images and ephemera documenting the pioneering local drag, cabaret and carnival perfomer, known for decades of performances. Thru Feb 28. Also, The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus: Celebrating 35 Years of Activism Through Song, includes archival materials from the historic chorus, lead-curated by Tom Burtch, with a touch-screen display by multimedia producer John Raines. Other permanent exhibits as well. Reg. hours Mon-Sat 11am-7pm (closed Tue.) Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

Wed 29 Sean Strub’s Body Counts

Tue 28 Butterflies & Blooms @ Conservatory of Flowers Popular exhibit transforms the floral gallery into a fluttering garden with 20 species of butterflies and moths. Reg. hours, 10am-4pm. Free-$7. Tue-Sun 10am4:30pm. Extended thru March 16, 2014. 100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park. 8312090. www.conservatoryofflowers.org

Christian Pepin @ Yoshi’s Grammy-nominated Latin jazz percussionist performs with his band and guest vocalist Kina Mendez. $12- $50 (with dinner). 8pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

It’s Everything @ KOFY-TV Local nightlife host and singer BeBe Sweetbriar’s new streaming web talk show welcomes local celebrities; this week, David Helton (DJ Hawthorne, Left Magazine publisher), Sister Roma, and Saturn. 7pm. Audience welcome at KOFY-TV, 2500 Marin St. www.BeBeSweetbriar.com

Il Trovatore @ Elk’s Ballroom, Alameda Virago Theatre Company’s production of Verdi’s opera about vengeful gypsies and romantic rivalries. $25-$45. 7pm. Thru Feb. 1. 2255 Santa Clara Ave. (510) 3371354. www.brownpapertickets.com

Thu 30 Anita Gillette @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The Broadway and TV actress-singer performs After All, her song-filled story cabaret show that includes her experiences as a performer, including her work in the original Broadway cast of Gypsy with Ethel Merman. $30-$40. 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.ticketweb.com

Geoff Hoyle @ The Marsh, Berkeley The veteran comic actor returns with his solo show, Geezer, a nostalgic meditation on his lengthy career and life. $25-$50. Thu 8pm. Sat. 5pm. Thru March 1. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Thu 30 Hot Draw

Sun 26 Michael McDonagh @ Berkeley Arts Festival The Bay Area poet reads new works, along with a screening of Sight Unseen, a short film with actor Hermann Eppert; also, pianist Ric Louchard and his trio perform original music and works by Eric Satie. 4pm. 2133 University Ave., Berkeley. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com

Pedro Sa Moraes @ Yoshi’s Brazilian guitarist-singer with a diverse array of styles, from classic Latin pop to experimental rock Tropicalia, performs with his band. $12-$50 (w/dinner). 7pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Radical Women @ New Valencia Hall Discussion of women’s reproductive rights history (3pm), followed by an optional buffet-style dinner (6:30pm, $7.50). 747 Polk St. 864-1278. www.radicalwomen.org

Solo Sundays @ Stage Werx Theatre Storytelling theatre series, with this month’s theme “When Dreams Come True,” includes Echo Brown, Julia Jackson, Bruce Pachtman, and Jill Vice. $12. 7pm. 446 Valencia St. brownpapertickets.com

Wu Man @ Hertz Hall The Pipa virtuoso plays ancient melodies and contemporary songs on the lute-like instrument. $32. 3pm. UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way at College Ave. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

Mon 27 All About Image @ Robert Tat Gallery Exhibit of exceptional images from a variety of 20th and 21st-century photographers. Thru Feb 22. 49 Geary St. #410. 781-1122. www.roberttat.com

Sat 25 Marga Gomez’ Lovebirds David Wilson

Ginger Snap @ Glama-Rama Exhibit of abstract sculptural works by the local drag performer and DJ, at the local hair salon. Thru Mar. 2. 304 Valencia St. 861-4526. www.glamarama.com

Mark I. Chester

Melinda Chateauvert @ Books Inc.

Hot Draw @ Mark I. Chester Studio

The activist and historian shares Sex Workers Unite: A History of the Movement from Stonewall to Slutwalk, a provocative history that reveals how sex workers have been at the vanguard of social justice movements for the past fifty years. 7:30pm. 2275 Market St. 864-6777. www.booksinc.net

The gay men’s erotic drawing group welcomes two hot models who’ll pose in leather and kink-themed settings. Donations. 6:30-9:30pm. 1229 Folsom St. RSVP day of: 621-6294. www.markichester.com

Scott James @ Magnet

The innovative dance-theatre artist premieres Performance Research Experiment #2.2, a work that examines (literally) the body in performance, including a bit of audience participation. $15-$20. Thu-Sat 8pm. 401 Alabama St. www.jesscurtisgravity.org

Bestselling local author, aka Kemble Scott, reads from and discusses his intriguing speculative fiction and HIV-themed book, The Sower; free books, food and drinks. 8pm. 4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org

Wed 29 Hir @ Magic Theatre World premiere of Obie Award winner Taylor Mac’s play about Paige, a mother determined to forge a liberated life for her two kids; Isaac, a discharged soldier, and Max, a third-sex youth. $20-$60. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Previews. Opens Feb. 6. Thru Feb. 23. Fort Mason Center, Building D, 3rd floor. 441-8822. www.magictheatre.org

Jason Lazarus: Live Archive @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Exhibit of unusual work by the Chicago artist who explores collective public archives, personal memory, and the role of photography and collecting in contemporary art and identity. Also, To Build & Be Built: Kibbutz History (thru July 1). 2pm-5pm. Free (members)-$12. Thu-Tue 11am-5pm (Thu 1pm-8pm) 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Jess Curtis/Gravity @ Joe Goode Annex

Untitled Feminist Show @ Lam Research Theater Obie Award-winning playwright and director Young Jean Lee’s new work shakes up the concept of gender norms with a witty style, and more than a bit of onstage nudity. Free-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Feb 1. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard St. 978-2787. www.ybca.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, and our new merged section, www.ebar.com/bartab

<< Film

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

Notes on the 2014 Oscar nominations by David Lamble

ive weeks out, the race for Best Picture Oscar is wide open, with no reliable morning line or Vegas picks to click. 12 Years a Slave Director Steve McQueen’s gutsy take on Solomon Northrup’s memoir is a classic British-invasion provocation akin to Tony Richardson’s savage 1965 satire on American funeral practices The Loved One. Employing a largely passive protagonist (Chiwetel Ejiofor as a riveting Everyman trapped in the underworld) who commands the moral high ground, McQueen unleashes his Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Paul Giamatti’s brutal slave auctioneer, Paul Dano’s

lynch-mob-minded overseer, and Michael Fassbender’s Bible-quoting sexual sadist. This obvious frontrunner needs to win the hearts of the biggest Oscar-voting bloc, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). American Hustle David O. Russell’s comic tone-poem tribute to great screen-acting is a SAG members’ inside flush. Russell’s up-ending of the real-life late-70s FBI sting operation against six members of the New Jersey Congressional delegation is especially delectable as Gov. Chris Christie twists slowly in the wind of Bridgegate. Hustle could do to Slave what Crash did to Brokeback Mountain’s Best Picture Oscar bid. The Wolf of Wall Street Martin Scorsese’s operatic send-up of

REAL STEAKS. REAL MARTINIS. REAL SAN FRANCISCO.

Wall Street beastliness is catnip for hardcore fans of financial skullduggery, and for those praying that this is finally Leo’s year. DiCaprio could hardly do more to merit the Best Actor nod. Should Wolf win, maybe we’ll get to see Marty’s original four-hour cut, which editor Thelma Schoonmaker says played very well with preview audiences. Gravity This IMAX cornucopia of techno tricks is a great resume piece for Y Tu Mama Tambien creator Alfonso Cuaron, whose fabulous one-liner in our long-ago chat still resonates. “Why do gay guys love Gael [Garcia Bernal]?” Captain Phillips Tom Hanks is the main reason to catch this engaging true-life crime-at-sea drama. Dallas Buyers Club Surviving AIDS activists will doubtless have reservations from mere quibbles to profound misgivings about why this should be Hollywood’s originmyth tale on how the great plague was fought. But overall, it’s a worthy tear-jerker in the tradition of Philadelphia. Her Spike Jonze’s romance about a guy (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls for the female voice of his computer’s operating system is possibly a cinema fad, destined to be forgotten a few years hence. Nebraska A middling effort by Alexander Payne’s exalted standards, this one is notable for underdog Best Actor/Actress bids from an unusually reticent Bruce Dern and a wildly profane June Squibb. Philomena Stephen Frears delivers a masterful, humane comedy about an aging, one-time unwed mother’s bid to see the now-adult child stolen from her by nuns who proceeded to sell him on the black baby market. This great Judi Dench/ Steve Coogan comic indictment of the crimes of Irish Catholicism holds special appeal for gay men of all ages. Shoo-in: Cate Blanchett for Best Actress in Woody Allen’s Tennessee Williams homage Blue Jasmine. Most puzzling omission: Oscar’s snub to the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, which, along with box-office flop-sweats for three recent Beat flicks, proves that Ginsberg and company are not mainstream movie fare. Jared Leto, nominated for Best Supporting Actor in Dallas Buyers Club: The Bossier, Louisianaraised Leto had a music career in mind upon landing in LA, but the androgynously boyish artist found himself offered just enough choice catnip roles, from Claire Danes’ school-rebel, would-be boyfriend

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Jared Leto is up for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in Dallas Buyers Club.

in the hip TV series My So-Called Life to the addict in saintly denial in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, that he didn’t take a break until 2009. I find the light-brown-haired (worn shoulder-length) actor with the Rayon-inspired weight-loss put back on, but nursing a cold that has him refusing handshakes while allowing me to use his tissue box as an improvised tripod for my digital camera. Speaking so softly in his own Bayou-inflected patois that I wonder if I’ll have anything but my radio tones on the tape, Leto recalls what first drew him to Rayon. “I thought it was an incredible story, that she had a really great heart. I thought it was the opportunity of a lifetime, really.” David Lamble: You lost a lot of weight for this. Jared Leto: It changes the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you think, the way people treat you. It adds a certain fragility. Where does your accent come from? Probably my grandmother. I lived in Texas and Louisiana. Where does Rayon get her clothes? Thrift stores, hand-me downs, but I’m sure it wasn’t easy finding a size-12 shoe in Dallas. Your homework for Rayon? I met friends of friends, and

reaching out I met transgender kids, people who had been living their lives as women for decades. How hard was the supermarket scene where Ron chokes his old friend? I was really big, and that was always a concern of mine, how to walk that fine line and not play some stereotypical cliché: the drag queen who’s dancing on the table with a feather boa, who runs out of the room with a snappy one-liner. But the father scene was very intense and challenging emotionally. I remember sitting in front of the mirror, putting makeup on, thinking about dying. The through-line from your character to Matthew’s is difficult. She knows that Ron’s got a big heart underneath the bravado. She’s also desperate for friendship, for love from any and all. She was neglected by her father, and was always looking for a male figure in her life. How did you land Requiem for a Dream? I begged and pleaded with [director] Darren Aronofsky. He was great at stringing you along. He would call me in the middle of the night, ask me a couple of questions, and I’d tell him that “nobody’s going to play this part like I will – no one else in the world. I’m your guy, bet on me!”t

Anita Gillette

From page 17

Video clips from those performances show the 77-year-old Gillette to still possess a rich and powerful voice, but other than selections on original cast albums, she has surprisingly never recorded a studio album of her own. “People have wanted me to make a CD, but I’m so picky about my sound,” she said. “I’m still in good voice for my age, and I talk about my age because that’s what the Internet does. The first thing you read is about how old I am. I hate it, but if you can’t fight it, join it.” No plastic surgery for Gillette, she announced unbidden, and she even shuns the camouflage of turtleneck tops. “I hate the idea of getting cut,” she said. “It’s about just making a statement about being who you are. Sometimes I think, who the hell do I think I am? But I’m enjoying myself.”

Don Hunstein/Sony Music

Anita Gillette records one of her songs for the original cast recording of the 1962 musical Mr. President.

Gillette has been married twice, the first union producing two children but ending in divorce, and the second leaving her a widow. “Now I have a boyfriend in London, and we’ve been do-

ing an across-the-pond boogie for 10 years,” she said. “We were set up by friends, but I didn’t like him the first time we met. I definitely had a different opinion the second time.”t

Film>>

January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Guard your back: ‘Noir City’ returns by Tavo Amador

on’t let this year’s mild weather fool you – winter in urban areas is a bitter, grim time. Noir City 12 at the Castro Theatre (Jan. 24-Feb. 2) proves that point with Hollywood rarities and foreign language films (all with English subtitles) showing the influence this quintessentially American genre had internationally. Journey Into Fear (1943) was scripted by Joseph Cotton from Eric Ambler’s novel. Cotton plays an American engineer being hunted by the Nazis. With Orson Welles, beautiful Dolores Del Rio – returning to Hollywood after establishing herself in her native Mexico – Agnes Moorehead, and reptilian Evert Sloane. Officially directed by Norman Foster, it has Welles’ unmistakable imprint throughout. Welles doesn’t appear in Sir Carol Reed’s magnificent The Third Man (1949) until the second half, but he dominates this masterpiece set in a frightening post-WWII Vienna, divided into American, Russian, French, and British zones. Pulp novelist Holly Martens (Cotton) is investigating the death of old friend Harry Limes (Welles). What he finds is unforgettable. With the striking Alida Valli and Trevor Howard. Screenplay by Graham Greene. Anton Karas wrote the celebrated score. (Fri., 1/24) Director Anthony Mann specialized in Westerns and epics, but as Border Incident (1949) shows, he was adept with noirs. U.S. and Mexican agents team up to capture a gang exploiting migrant workers. With handsome Ricardo Montalban (before TV’s Fantasy Island) and future California Senator George Murphy. The Golden Age of Mexican Cinema (ca. 1936-69) is noted for melodramas, but it also produced some interesting noirs. In the Palm of Your Hand (1951) has a con man seducing a wealthy widow, only to discover she and her lover murdered her husband. Is he at risk? With Arturo de Cordova. The terrific Cuban-born Ninon Sevilla, one of the most popular divas of the era, stars as a dancer/hooker who rescues an abandoned baby in Victims of Sin (1951). She insists on keeping the infant, despite threats from her pimp. This is an amazing combination of music and noir melodrama. (Sat., 1/25, matinee) Long thought lost in 35mm, Too Late for Tears (1949) has been gloriously restored. A satchel of stolen cash is accidentally tossed into a convertible belonging to a nice suburban couple, Jane and Alan Palmer (luscious Lizabeth Scott, Arthur Kennedy). He wants to do the right thing, but she doesn’t. Guess who prevails? The consequences are deadly. With creepy Dan Duryea and Don DeFore, years before TV’s Hazel. Directed by Byron Haskin, written by Roy Huggins. Scott (b. 1922), one of the era’s great beauties, was brought to Hollywood in 1946 by producer Hal Wallis and foolishly promoted as a rival to Lauren Bacall. She sometimes played warm “girls,” but was at her best as a treacherous dame. Her career may have ended prematurely because, in the early 1950s, Confidential magazine suggested she was a lesbian. Sexy, whiskey-voiced Ida Lupino, a fine actress, was also a good director, as evidenced by The Hitchhiker (1953). William Talman (before TV’s Perry Mason) gets help from Robert Ryan and Frank Lovejoy, then plans to kill them. Scary. Lupino and Collier Young wrote the script. (Sat., 1/25, evening) Actor Toshiro Mifune and director Akira Kurasawa, who made inter-

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Noir City

Joseph Cotton scripted and starred in Journey Into Fear (1943), part of Noir City 12.

Noir City Y

Scene from Sir Carol Reed’s magnificent The Third Man (1949), partCM of Noir City 12. MY

national movie history in Japanese films, were first paired in Drunken Angel (1948), a tale of an alcoholic doctor who saves the life of a gangster. The explosive, virile star and director were reunited for another noir, Stray Dog (1949), about a policeman disgraced when his gun is stolen in a subway. He and a veteran cop hunt the culprit through the labyrinth of underground Tokyo. (Sun., 1/26, matinee & evening) The Murderers Among Us (1946) is the first German film to look at the consequences of the Fascist regime. A doctor and ex-Nazi falls in love with a concentration camp survivor. He must also avenge himself on his commanding officer. With Hildegarde Nef and Wilhelm Borchert. Elegant, beautiful Merle Oberon and tough Robert Ryan are passengers on the Berlin Express (1948), heading for a UN Conference. Also onboard is German scientist Paul Lukas, who is fleeing assassins. Will he reach safety? Partially filmed on location. Directed by Jacques Tourneur. (Mon., 1/27, evening) Death of a Cyclist (1955) is a Spanish noir about a wealthy socialite (Lucia Bose) and her college pro-

fessor lover (Alberto Closas). They run down a bicyclist after a tryst and leave him to die – a big mistake. Directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, uncle of Javier. Norwegian director Edith Carlmar breathes new life into the familiar tale of a hunky mechanic, engaged to be married, seduced by a wealthy older woman. The sex is great, but he soon learns that Death Is a Caress (1949). (Tues., Jan. 28, evening) England’s class system has been fertile grounds for noir, and It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) is a fine example. Googie Withers, once a barmaid, is the matriarch of an impoverished family living in public housing. She hides her former lover, now a fugitive, threatening what little security the family has. A good, early example of British “Kitchen Sink” drama. Brighton Rock (1947) is regarded as one of the greatest English films ever made. Gay Terence Rattigan adapted Grahame Greene’s novel about a young hoodlum (Richard Attenborough) and the troubles he brings to a beach resort trying to heal from the trauma of WWII. John Boulting directed. (Wed., Jan. 29, evening)t CY

CMY

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26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

Darren Stein on being a G.B.F. by Gregg Shapiro

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Geography Club, First Period, and now G.B.F. indicate that this subgenre has come into its own. I feel very grateful to have made G.B.F. Getting films made is never easy, since I’ve only gotten to make a film a decade. Both of my movies capture not only what is happening in the year, but also in the decade. I think if you watch Jawbreaker, you can go back and say, “That was really 90s and bizarre,” and with G.B.F., “That was a time when girls were calling gay guys G.B.F.s, that was really strange.” I feel like there is a through-line between Jawbreaker and G.B.F. Both films have a stylized feeling to them and feel timeless, and hopefully they will be the kind of films you want to revisit.

ay filmmaker Darren Stein takes us back to school with his campy and colorful new comedy G.B.F. (Vertical). It’s familiar territory for Stein, who also directed Jawbreaker, the classic 1990s Mean Girls precursor. G.B.F. (Gay Best Friend) cranks up the homo high school hijinks with a story about an unintentional outing and the chaos that ensues. Narrator Tanner’s (Michael J. Willett) transformation from invisible man to in-demand dude is both hilarious and heartbreaking as he navigates the choppy waters of the high school shark tank. I spoke with Stein about G.B.F. shortly before its theatrical release in early 2014. Gregg Shapiro: Darren, were you someone’s G.B.F. when you were in high school? Darren Stein: I went to an all-boys school, so I didn’t have that experience in high school. I had female friends in college, several of them. When I graduated from college, I became very close with a close friend of my mom’s! So I always had close female friends. Obviously, this is before the G.B.F. moniker was invented. Are you still in touch with any of them? I am! I actually just called my mom’s friend yesterday! I think the relationship between gay men and women is a very special one, and not one that comes easily. It’s not like you can just order up a gay friend, or any friend for that matter. Obviously, there’s a certain absurdity to the trend of the G.B.F. and the idea that girls today think it’s something on a must-have list. The film makes fun of that notion, but also celebrates the friendships. With each successive generation, having openly gay friends while you’re in high school will only increase over time, don’t you think?

Scene from director Darren Stein’s G.B.F, a story about an unintentional outing.

Yes. Down the line the moniker G.B.F. will be an ancient relic. It will be perfectly normal to have friends no matter what their sexual orientation is. High school is a popular theme in your movies G.B.F. and Jawbreaker. You said you went to an all-boys school; how would you sum up your high school experience? It wasn’t the most exciting experience of my life. It was a very sports and academically oriented school, and pretty cliquey as well. Most of the guys came from private and prep schools, and I came from a public school. I didn’t really know anyone when I came there. I was there from Grades 7 to 12, a full six years. Growing up, high school movies such as Valley Girl, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller and Fast Times, all those John Hughes movies especially, even the trashier ones such

as Girls Just Want To Have Fun, presented a world that I personally didn’t get to experience. But for gay kids in high school, the girls give you validation, give you self-esteem. They make you relevant to the heterosexual male population because the straight guys want to know what makes you so special, or they want to use you to get to girls. I think it’s a much more normal world when it’s a coed setting. I think I have a small, special high school wound that I didn’t get to experience this. High school movies are a genre unto themselves, from Rebel Without a Cause to Heathers, Mean Girls and Easy A. Did you look to any precursors for inspiration? Yes. Part of the fun of the screenplay is that it plays with tropes from teen films of the past. I think the writer [George Northy], because he’s a lot younger than I am, a lot of

his references were more modern, such as Mean Girls, Easy A or Saved. We all have a fondness for the movies we grew up with, and for me it’s much more Fast Times, Carrie, Rock and Roll High School, Valley Girl, Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles. Those films are clearly playing with those tropes of the mean girls and the outsiders. There are little references throughout the film, visually and also musically. One of my favorite references was repurposing Spandau Ballet’s song “True” from the dance party scene in Sixteen Candles, and using it when the two boys dance together in G.B.F. The version in G.B.F. is by a shoe-gazer band, so it’s a lot more emo and feels a lot more today. But I think people from our generation will recognize it and tap into the experience of having watched Sixteen Candles. In the last couple of years, LGBT high school movies such as Pariah,

G.B.F. has a wonderful cast of new, young actors and seasoned pros, including Megan Mullally, Natasha Lyonne and Rebecca Gayheart, who was also in Jawbreaker. For me, casting is the most important part of the filmmaking process. I’m very specific about every character. Especially in a film such as G.B.F., where it’s such a huge world of characters. It was a definite process to find exactly the right person for each role and make the film accessible, not just to kids today, but people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, every generation. I think every great teen movie should do that. We all went to high school, we all have the wounds, good and bad. I think, for the audience, using Sasha [Pieterse as Fawcett] from Pretty Little Liars is referencing something new in pop culture. Using Rebecca Gayheart is a wink because she was in Jawbreaker, she was a teenager, and now she’s a mother. Natasha Lyonne, who was in But I’m a Cheerleader, is a reference to one of the pioneering LGBT teen films. I think there was a wink and a nod to every character. It’s an honor to be able to make a film, and you want to populate it with all the right choices.t

Brahmsian ambitions by Tim Pfaff

he first time I spun Stephen Hough’s new recording of the Brahms Piano Concertos (Hyperion), I quit in a huff. The openly gay – celebratorily gay, really – pianist has done some remarkable work rethinking and working the big Romantic warhorses, and his previous live recordings of the complete Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov concertos have been revelatory. My first impression this time, however, was of a bloodless, boring flop. These performances were not as soaring – as anything – as I take my Brahms. Over the following month, they called me back. I thought I’d just have them on while I did other things and see if they beckoned, but I quickly found myself listening intently. Not that Hough doesn’t have the paws to maul these pieces properly (listen to those climactic trills in the Second). But his stockin-trade has always been his keen, probing intelligence, and the payoff here, as before and elsewhere, is great. I’ll say flat-out that his will not be the only Brahms piano concertos I consult from here on, but I’ll surely be making repeated visits for the supreme clarity of his playing and the sage insight he makes into these familiar scores. What tips the balance in his and Brahms’ favor is that his playing is adamant as well as adamantine.

Sometimes I wish he and Mark Wigglesworth, leading the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, would get the lead out. The urgent first movement of the first has trouble getting traction, although soon you’re in its unyielding web. And their case for a less monumental Brahms does take some of the Alpine wind out of your hair in the Second. But their combined depth of feeling start-tofinish sweeps all else before it. Hearing the Second now reminded me that I hadn’t in eons, because I hadn’t wanted to. I’m afraid of heights and bleed easily from the nose, and that concerto doesn’t just aim for the stars, it broadcasts from them. Having tuned in on Hough’s frequency, I feel like I’ve gotten the piece back. There’s nothing particularly “period instrument” about either

the Hough concertos or the more-than-complete Brahms Symphonies (some alternate versions of movements and smaller orchestral works are included) from Riccardo Chailly and his Leipzig Gewandhausorchester (Decca). But by now the most germane insights gleaned from two generations of historically informed performance have infiltrated the playing of the greatest orchestras and conductors, and a composer as over-painted by tradition as Brahms can emerge sounding not “older” or more “modern” or even more “modern-leaning” but clearer, both in its ambitions and in its achievements. Secretly, I thought I could shuffle off this mortal coil without hearing these pieces again. Chailly refreshed my memory. The Third, for example, the one most likely to clot in my ears, emerges vastly more buoyant, blooming rather than erupting. The tempos are generally fleeter than one might expect from a modern symphony orchestra, but never more than what one has come to expect since the historical performaniacs started looking at the ones the careful Brahms set down. The point is more that the rhythms are elastic and breathe naturally, if not regularly in the strict sense. As important, Chailly has found balances that mean you can hear

all the music all the time, but in the right proportions. The winds – woods and brass – are eloquent and alert, and they never drown in the massed strings. The string sound, for its part, is rich and full, but if you listen deeply in, you’ll notice that it’s about string tone, not overlays of vibrato. There’s terrific energy in the sound, but not that subliminal angst you get from overvibrated strings. For me, the biggest overall yields are in the Fourth, which is so susceptible to lugubrious surges of sound, rocking queasily. It’s a symphony you could drown in – and not in a good way! Chailly finds the ideal soft, glowing colors for it, and shades them like a master. The mild dissonances in the second movement, which we’re reminded were not mild at all to some ears when these symphonies were new (although the first two appeared after Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and the last two after Parsifal), make their point without being leaned on. To escape only partly the inevitable Wagner comparisons, the Brahms symphonies come off as the supreme master music. Chailly lights it all from within, so that the music, whatever it’s doing, partakes of that warmth that is an essential part of the Brahms sound. The symphonies take

only the first two of the set’s three discs, and the last is a mixed but overall livelier bag. There’s play and pizzazz aplenty in the “Academic Festival Overture,” and the rarely heard nine-movement symphonization for small orchestra of the Liebeslieder Waltzes. The jolt, for me, was in hearing the orchestrations of late-Brahms piano works, the Intermezzi. Chailly brings them off with the greatest sensitivity, but they reminded me how much I appreciate the more intimate Brahms of the chamber, vocal, and instrumental works. When it was time to put the set on the shelf, I was startled to note that it went alongside the only other set of Brahms Symphonies I keep out for ready access: Riccardo Chailly’s, from the late 1980s and early 90s, with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra. Guess I’ve found my man.t

Fine Art>>

January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Mobley moves on from SF Camerawork by Sura Wood

n a move that surprised many, Chuck Mobley, the dynamic director of SF Camerawork, announced his departure from the organization and will be leaving at the end of this month. In his 14year tenure at the 40-year-old nonprofit – first as an intern, then gallery manager, and for the last two years as head honcho – Mobley brought his considerable acumen and tough-mindedness, his abundant knowledge of photography, and his personal warmth to his job and to the arts community. Mobley grew up in the Midwest and Athens, Georgia, and studied photography in Minneapolis before moving to San Francisco in 1999. He has lived in the same apartment in the city’s Tenderloin nearly as long as he has been at the professional home which gave him his first job in the field. For the last two years, it’s been a short walk door-to door. “It’s kind of a joke among my friends that I really don’t leave my neighborhood,” he laughs. “There are so many parts of San Francisco I’ve never been to.” Of the city he loves he has one lament: “It would be nice if there were an autonomous zone for bohemians, the people who don’t need a fancy place to live, and are interested in ideas and books and art and music and having that kind of life. A boho ghetto would be ideal.” An extended conversation I had with Mobley in the gallery’s new space, soon after their move to the Mid-Market neighborhood in 2012, was one of the more stimulating and enjoyable experiences in my years as a journalist. Here’s hoping that maintaining a presence in San Francisco figures into his future plans, which, gathering from our most recent interview, are fluid and open-ended. Sura Wood: What prompted your decision to step down at SF Camerawork? Chuck Mobley: I don’t think people should stay in these jobs for that long. Had I come into the director’s job without having worked there in a number of capacities, I might have stayed longer, but once it got past the 10-year mark, it was time to go. On a personal level, I’m going to be 45 this year, and it felt like time for a change. If I was going to do it, this was the moment. Who were your heroes when you were studying photography? Jo Spence is someone I discovered in college. She was a British photographer who did this great book called Putting Myself in the Picture. Her work dealt with class issues in England and feminism. She had breast cancer and did work about the health care system, how it can dehumanize you, how your body can be transformed by illness. She was using photography in an activist way that I found thrilling. I also sought out Allan Sekula, Martha Rosler and all those 70s and 80s conceptual artists who were very political and kids of the 60s. You’ve had a perfect vantage point from which to observe the trends in photography. What do regard as some of the good and bad developments? In the 80s and 90s, there was a critical dialogue around photography and what was possible. Now the pendulum has swung toward this populist, anti-intellectual area; everybody’s a photographer in this democratic medium. People seem to approach photography the same way they approach music, the idea being: I’ve heard music my whole life, so my opinion is valid. I think there’s a leveling of everything in this country. We don’t want an

elitist president, we want someone to have a beer with, that kind of garbage. I want the smartest guy in the room to be president, not the dilettante. In an artist, I want a serious person, someone who has studied and practiced for many years and understands the history of the medium, not someone with an iPhone. What do you think of the advent of digital photography? Are you a darkroom guy? I don’t believe in any of that fetishizing, nostalgic junk, though it’s how I learned photography. I love and understand the [darkroom] process, but I don’t care about living in the past. I keep moving forward. I thought there were photographers who would dig in their heels and never make the switch to digital, but I turned around one day and you couldn’t walk down the street without tripping over enlargers.

Rick Gerharter

SF Camerawork director Chuck Mobley is stepping down.

What has been your set of criteria for selecting artists? You have to sort through a ton of work. The one thing you gravitate toward is the people who are serious about what they’re doing. The ideas and how they execute them are paramount. You can be a technically brilliant photographer and not have anything to say. Does an artist have to have social/political awareness and a strong point of view? I think the most interesting work operates on a lot of different levels, and it’s by people who understand they’re working in a larger political system, not in a vacuum. Look, you can have conversations about aesthetics till the cows come home. My cheesy metaphor for this is that there are a lot of people I’d like to sleep with, but do I want to wake up and have coffee with them the next day? There has to be something going on upstairs to make it interesting. People start talking about emotional impact or about the aura of a photograph and that it speaks to them, but photographs don’t speak, they don’t have tongues, and they only have auras when you’re on acid. We all have emotional lives, but a lot of us understand that we live in a world with inequality and social injustice.

Rick Gerharter

SF Camerawork director Chuck Mobley in the gallery.

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What have been some of the high points of your tenure? Mostly I feel lucky because of all the great people I’ve gotten to meet and work with. In 14 years, I’ve only worked with a handful of people I really intensely disliked and thought were sociopaths. That’s a pretty good ratio. Are you still taking photographs? I stopped trying to make art a long time ago. My main extracurricular activity has been working with the band The Size Queens. I’m sort of their de facto manager and have produced videos and CD packaging for them. I’m not in the band, I don’t play music, sing, or write lyrics. I mostly just tag along, listen, look, and learn. So what’s next, and where do you see yourself in five years? I honestly don’t know. Mostly, I want a little down-time. I want to sleep and read books and reconnect with people in the real world and not have huge responsibilities. I want to unplug from email, glowing screens and the Internet – all of that can feel like a tyranny. I don’t know about making a living. I’ll always be surrounded by people who are doing interesting things. Artists and writers and musicians have always been part of my life, and I know they always will be. By the time I’m 50, I just hope I still have some hair left and I’m not super overweight.t

Join us for our signature monthly networking event! Make contact and connect with LGBT & Allied business owners and professionals at our February Make Contact event hosted by the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.).

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2014 6:00pm - 8:00pm 405 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 Three blocks from Powell Metro/BART station FREE for GGBA Members | $20 for Guests

Since 1974, GGBA is proud to be the LGBT Chamber of Commerce for the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information about this event or to find LGBT-friendly businesses, please visit

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“A classic ballet for all time” — San Francisco Examiner

giselle JAN 25-FEB 2

Giselle is a young peasant girl with a fragile heart and a passion for dancing. Join us for one of the greatest Romantic ballets in the classical repertory—a stunning tale of love,deceit, and the supernatural.

VANESSA ZAHORIAN IN TOMASSON’S GISELLE (© ERIK TOMASSON)

nite out:

SF Ballet’s exclusive cultural event for the LGBT community

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PERSONALS Vol. 44 • No. 4 • January 23-29, 2014

www.ebar.com ✶ www.bartabsf.com

Val Diamond and hunky bartenders performing at the first Men Behind Bars benefit show.

Behind Men Behind Bars a BARchive extra by Mark Abramson

n the winter of 1983-84, Jim Cvitanich had an idea to put on an AIDS benefit variety show featuring area bartenders, since so many of them were frustrated performers. Divine had been in town with a play called Women Behind Bars at the Alcazar Theatre, so Jim decided we should call our show Men Behind Bars. He told me that ever since we had worked together on the Mr. Drummer contests at the Russian River, he thought I’d be the perfect person to help him put together this one-night show, and we decided to make it a benefit for Shanti. Somehow that one night turned into ten years of my life. See page 2 >>

y a g o s So, e os J n Sa

Robert Pruzan; permission/courtesy: GLBT Historical Society

by Heather Cassell

t’s a boy’s playground in San Jose. There isn’t a shortage of gay nightclubs in the South Bay, even with one that closed recently, only to be reimagined and rise up into the nightlife scene fresh and new again. See page 3 >>

The new Metropolitan freshens up gay San Jose’s nightlife.

Jo-Lynn Otto

The BEST is yet to come

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

Men Behind Bars

From page 1

“But to have no talent is not enough!” is a line from Gypsy, Jim’s favorite musical. He decided to use that as part of the show, so we rewrote the lyrics to “You Gotta Get a Gimmick” and put together a take-off on the song with himself and two other sexy bartenders demonstrating what made their bartending skills special. Our original plan was to use only bartenders in the show, but we soon added others—friends of bartenders, bar owners, cocktail waiters, bar backs, bouncers, and basically anyone who had ever set foot inside a bar. Then we invited the San Francisco Tap Troupe to give the show some class. The Bay Area Reporter’s leather columnist, Mister Marcus, agreed to emcee the production, a virtual guarantee that he would promote the hell out of it in his column, and I suggested getting a guest star for the finale. By 1984, Val Diamond was the star of Beach Blanket Babylon in North Beach, but they were dark on Mondays. When I called her, she told me that she’d thought about doing an AIDS benefit ever since the original Mr. Peanut, the tap dancing Planter’s Peanut Man in Beach

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

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

Blanket Babylon, died of AIDS. We got Scumbly Koldewyn of Cockettes fame to play the piano. I played tenor sax. Though I don’t recall all the other musicians, I do remember that we sounded pretty good. A group of bartenders from The Ambush did a hilarious bellydancing act years before big hairy men were called “bears.” These guys showed off their bellies dressed in beads and lace with lots of jewelry and finger cymbals. At least one of the bartenders at the Pilsner—Ron Brewer—was a member of the Barbary Coast Cloggers, so he got them to perform in our show. The touring company of Dreamgirls was in town and someone called to offer us its star, Linda Leilani Brown, as long as she didn’t perform anything from the Broadway show. Ed Stark put together a Swan Lake number he dubbed “Le Grande Ballet de Nothing Special” with some Robert Pruzan; permission/courtesy: GLBT Historical Society of his bartenders from his bar on Castro Street. The story goes that he Ed Stark, aka Edwina Ballerina, in the first Men Behind Bars show. and his lover Jack South rode their motorcycles from Kansas to San Francisco in the late 1960s and disher directions to the Ramrod and told covered a hippie/biker bar on Castro her to meet me there. Street called the Club Unique. It had Since we only had that one rebeaded curtains, fake Tiffany lamps hearsal with Val, the band, and the above the bar with mismatched dancers, we ran the number two or mirrors framed and scattered across three times and decided we were the walls and the ubiquitous smells good to go. That first year’s show of stale beer and cigarette smoke. was only a one-night performance The Castro was just over the hill on a Monday in January. We had no from the Haight, and the old-timers idea it would be a sell-out, much less said that Janis Joplin used to hang the beginning of a tradition. In the out there drinking Southern Comfinale, Val flubbed a couple of the fort. When Ed saw the bar for the lyrics and some of the bare-chested first time, he took one look around back-up boys might have missed a and said, “Club Unique? There’s few dance steps, but nobody cared. nothing special about this place.” By that point, the audience was so He and Jack bought the bar and rewound up, not to mention drunk, named it The Nothing Special. they were willing to forgive anyIn the first Men Behind Bars thing. We were ecstatic! show, we set some precedents that Looking back at the videotape— we followed in the years to come. we didn’t have DVDs in those days— Although most of the show was I remember the wild reaction from live, we ended the first act with a the audience. They were so excited medley of lip-sync hits of the 1960s. to see their bartender friends on Three black drag queens did The stage that it wouldn’t have mattered Supremes. One of them was Emif the acts were horrible. In truth, press Connie and maybe the other some weren’t too good, but some two were contestants for royal titles were great. The sold-out crowd at that year. All the years we produced the Victoria Theatre screamed and Men Behind Bars shows, we tried to cheered and hooted and hollered include as much royalty as we could and rose to their feet time and again, find. Drag queens, like bartenders, from the front row orchestra seats to had friends who would buy tickets the top of the balcony. to come and see them. Some of the I called Val a week or so after the title holders were bartenders too. show to rehash the evening, and she Pat Montclaire wouldn’t become relayed to me a scene I had missed. Empress of San Francisco for a few There were rest rooms in the lobby, more years, but she was a bartender, of course, but they were always and we used her in the first Men crowded with audience members. Behind Bars. Her lip-sync to Lesley Val told me that in their tiny dressGore in the first act finale was lousy, ing room, the only room on the courtesy Mark Abramson but she was well-loved, and her basement level that had plumbing, transformation was amazing. She Jim Cvitanich and Mark Abramson outside The Victoria Theatre. she and Miss Brown had a steady was also one of the sweetest people stream of muscle boys and drag in the world, at least to me. Another part of that first together to raise money for a good queens squeezing behind act finale was a group of their make-up chairs to cause. It was unique at the time. four bartenders from Castro There was nothing but love in that pull down their dance Station and the Brig. They theatre that night, and that warmth belts or lift up their skirts called themselves The Forewas a welcome feeling in a time when in order to pee in the sink skins and did a medley of more and more of our friends were in the corner. Val said she’d boy-group songs from the getting sick. seen a lot worse conditions 1960s that included “Rama When all was said and done, our and chalked it up to show Lama Ding Dong” and “Blue one-night stand at the Victoria Thebusiness, but Linda Leilani Moon,” at the end of which Brown appeared to be rathatre, Men Behind Bars was able to they mooned the audience donate a little more than ten thouer shocked. Val and I had a to thunderous applause. sand dollars to the Shanti Project. good laugh over that. Each year’s second act The local gay papers wrote glowingly The Victoria Theatre finale featured The Follies about the event, and Jim and I were only seated five hundred, Men. The major prerequisite full of ideas for another show next but people talked about the for being a Follies Man was a year—bigger, better, brasher and show for weeks afterward. gym membership, the abilwith even more performance dates. Word spread quickly, espeity to learn a few basic dance cially through the gay bar It was just as easy to rehearse for two steps, and the willingness to or three nights of shows as for one, community. The people who appear on stage in little-toand the possibilities for even greatmissed it didn’t dare admit no clothing. Val Diamond’s er fundraising and exposure were they hadn’t been there, and big closing number in that those who saw it insisted obvious. There was no stopping us. finale was “Ain’t There Anythat you had to have seen it t one Here for Love?” from to believe it. That was true Gentlemen Prefer Blondes enough. There had been gay Excerpted from Mark Abramson’s with the Follies Men supshows before in San Francisnew memoir, For My Brothers, porting her. Our one rewhich is now available in ebook, co, of course. The Cockettes hearsal with Val was on the and soon in print, by Wilde City had caused a sensation in Saturday afternoon prior Press. For information, go to the late ‘60s with their midto the show in a warehouse www.wildecity.com night shows at the Palace space down an alley South For information on Mark’s other Theatre on Broadway, but of Market. I knew Val would books, the bestselling Beach they were a troupe. never find the rehearsal Mark Abranson’s For My Brothers Reading series, visit Our show was a colspace on her own, so I gave www.beachreading.net lective of people coming

t <<

Read more online at www.ebar.com

January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

San Jose

From page 1

Finding the gays is somewhat challenging. It’s not the Castro, Halsted, West Hollywood, the Village or any other city that has a thriving gayborhood. San Jose is a sprawling metropolis without a gay heart until you hit the clubs. The nightlife is where the heart is, heard pulsating and packing in all the flavor of the South Bay that has been heating up within the past few years. This is part of the reason why Brix Nightclub shut down at the beginning of December. Like Madonna, it needed to enter a cocoon and re-emerge stronger in a whole new form and image. The entire club was revamped into The Metropolitan, a supper club-type nightclub with a swanky new name. The Metropolitan is clean with padded white walls and mirrors, large video screens around the bar. New bar equipment and a sound system were unwrapped for its fans the day after Christmas, just in time for a New Year’s Eve celebration. The drink prices have been lowered while still offering quality liquors, beers and wine at its indoor and patio bars, said Rod Sichisler, one of the club owners, who encourages people to come in and “enjoy themselves.’’ ‘’It was time to make it a little newer and bring it a little more up to date,’’ said Sichisler, who owns the club with his wife Cindi. ‘’I just thought it would be nice to change the name and give it a new look.’’ This is the third time in the club’s seven-year history that the couple has reinvented it, but kept it as a gay and welcoming party place for the entire community. The club was briefly Hunter’s before it became Brix in 2007. Along with the new look and name, the club has a brand new management team. On January 13, Steve Sheehan was introduced as the club’s new manager along with Shannon Abraham, who was introduced as the new assistant manager. The club attracts a youthful crowd from nearby San Jose State University and young professionals in downtown San Jose. But it’s also eyeing a new crowd that is older, sophisticated and a bit quieter on nights that the club is also a bit more laidback. New and old fans of the nightclub will find that their favorite Monday night Power Hour remains. Some of the other popular nights with heart-pounding music and hard bodies are back on Friday and Saturday nights. The old favorites have returned, but new sounds will emanate from the building on a few of the other nights. The new staff

Gorgeous gogo guy at Splash.

Jo-Lynn Otto

Boys hanging out at the Metropolitan. Jo-Lynn Otto

Girls night out a the new Metropolitan.

Pals at Renegades.

JC Events

Alaska Thunkderfuck performs at Splash.

hopes to attract an older and quieter crowd with evenings filled with cabaret, jazz, live music and other entertainment. Sichisler said that he and his team are taking advantage of January being a slow month. They are currently in the midst of scheduling a lot of entertainment in the coming months. They plan to pluck their entertainers from the local community before roving out and expanding their search regionally, statewide and beyond. ‘’We would like it to be a fun and friendly place for everybody,’’ said Sichisler. That could be the theme for San Jose’s gay nightlife, which has kicked it up a notch while attempting to offer the glam and glitz of a big city club scene close to home. Here are the other nightlife venues that make San Jose’s LGBT and gay-friendly scene. With a Splash On the other side of the Plaza de Cesar Chavez from The Metropolitan is Splash, a snazzy three-level nightclub with two floors, offering a variety of music to dance to and a rooftop patio. On any given night there is something for anyone and everyone, from trivia and Karaoke to drag shows to the high energy parties. Splash also hosts San Jose’s only monthly club for the women, Play, with DJ Rockaway. Rough and tumble It’s all in the name with Renegades. While it initially is described as a ‘’neighborhood bar,’’ a peek inside, the whiff of leather and the sound of Levi’s rubbing together as men walk by instantly lets you know you’ve entered San Jose’s only leather and bear bar. There are a few lesbians and neighborhood straights that come in and out of the bar, but this is a man’s world – if men are what you are looking for. JC Events

Cheers Just a gay gal or boy looking for friendly place to quench your thirst in the South Bay? There are a couple of neighborhood gay bars that are mellow and just the place to hang out and kick back with your friends on any given night, even in the heart of downtown. Just across the street from Splash is Mac’s Club, where friends can grab a quick drink. Across town in the west of San Jose is Tinkers Damn. The city’s oldest gay bar is sort of the Cheers of the LGBT community. This downhome bar offers a diverse array of entertainment and music that is more fun with friends than hot hunks. Just like any good gay bar, they have their drag queens all gussied up and ready to put on a show. You won’t want to miss the Divas of Tinkers Damn every Sunday and Monday night. This rollicking show kicks off at 10:45 p.m. While not an official gay bar, Lido’s Nightclub is mostly a straight club, but is frequented by an LGBT Vietnamese crowd.

Leatherfolk love Renegades.

San Jose’s Nightlife: The Metropolitan (Formerly Brix Nightclub) 349 South 1st St. (408) 947-1975. www.themetsj.com Lido’s Nightclub 30 S 1st St. (408) 298-4318 www.lidonightclub.net Mac’s Club 39 Post St. (408) 288-8221. www.macsclub.com Renegades 501 W. Taylor St. (408) 275-9902. www.renegadesbar.com Splash 65 Post St. (408) 2922222. www.splashsj.com Tinker’s Damn 46 North Saratoga Ave. (408) 2434595. www.atinkersdamn.comt Heather Cassell is a travel and entertainment writer for the Bay Area Reporter and other publications. To read about queer women’s travel and entertainment, catch Heather and Super G’s drinking, eating and galivanting their way around the world at GirlsThatRoam.com.

San Francisco’s 18+ Sex Club!

Open daily at 12pm

2051 Market St. at Church St. Info: 415-864-EROS (3767)

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

Beautiful Boys

Murray Hill brings his trans man pageant to the West Coast by Josh Klipp

nly in San Francisco can you walk into a Valencia Street bar, pay a measly twenty bucks, and step into a world of pageantry that takes its cues from Donald Trump’s women-objectifying Miss America competition and turns it into a celebration of trans masculine expression. Okay, that’s not completely true - it happens in New York, too. As a matter of fact, the Mr. Transman competition is now in its third year, but finally makes its San Francisco debut after years of sell-out performances in The Big Apple. And by sell out, I don’t mean corporate sponsorship. I mean packed to the rafters with queer and straight folk alike cheering on brave, crazy and crazy-sexy trans male competitors who take beauty pageantry to unchartered and often unbelievable heights. The competition was created in 2010 by comedian Murray Hill, perhaps most recognized as the exclusive host for international burlesque superstar Dita Von Teese’s live show Strip Strip Hooray! Hill is also the founder of the infamous Miss Lez Pageant. With the growing spectrum of gender expression and identity, he decided it was time to put together an inclusive and transtastic trans-focused evening. Launching the competition, Hill partnered with Original Plumbing, an award-winning magazine on trans male culture, started in 2009 by Amos Mac and Rocco Kayiatos. The event aims to create a positive space and raise the visibility of this piece of the queer community. Six diverse trans men will compete in a variety of categories, including swimsuit, interview, talent and evening wear. Past competitors have brought their A-game by devising elaborate characters, costumes, and personas. One past competitor played the part of a filthy-mouthed toddler. Another strapped stuffed kittens to his unaltered chest with bow ties, and another – a bodybuilder – performed a Victor/Victoria-esque dance to Michael Jackson. Not to be outdone, one year an hirsute competitor shaved “winner” into his body hair while being force-fed cupcakes. Organizers anticipate this year will be no different. “San Francisco’s competitors are completely unpredictable” Kayiatos mused. Pageant hopefuls include: Lynn Breedlove, founder of the punk

Katerine Finklestein

Mr. Transman creator and host Murray Hill

band Tribe 8 and self-styled Homobiles Daddy; Beau, a mountain man firefighter; Loren, an Instagram FTM fashion fixture; Mason, selfdescribed as “J Banjee Realness with a Twist”; Dawson Montoya, a triathelete (“The sleeper, I think!” says Kayiatos); and none other than the genre-busting porn star himself, James Darling. “I can’t wait to see what James does in the pageant,” Kayiatos said. “He’s quiet in real life but on stage he just oozes sex.” Consider yourselves warned! Bringing some semblance of order to the guaranteed pageantry madness are judges of well-earned Ashley Fink esteem: Ashley Fink, the actress best known for her role as “Lauren Zizes” on For his efforts, the winning trans Glee; Brontez Purell, musician and man receives a cash prize, a photo zinester; Michelle Tea, award-winspread in Original Plumbing maganing author; and Shawna Virago, zine, sex toys from Good Vibrasinger, musician, and creator of the tions, a Stoli Vodka gift bag, and an San Francisco Transgender Film enormous trophy custom-made in Festival. And if that weren’t enough, Queens, New York. DJ Boyfriend spins during intermisWhen asked what it means to win sion, and my own dance company, the title, Kayiatos responds, “This is Freeplay Dance Crew brings some just a night of pure entertainment, smoky sexy moves debuting its new a moment for us to be entertained dance piece Talk Dirty. by the intricate aspect of identity.

Original Plumbing’s Amos Mac and Rocco Kayiatos

Mason

We don’t have to overthink gender or identity politics – it’s just a celebration of that. We get to appreciate how smart and sexy people are in this community.” Gay and transgendered pageants have been around for a long time. But there has never been a competition for FTM and trans men until now. But get your tickets and a your seats early, because while congeniality runs rampant in our community,

so does a desire to see it all up close. Between Murray Hill’s banter and this sexy slate of competitors, something wild is bound to go down.t Murray Hill’s First Annual San Francisco Mr. Transman 2014 Competition takes place Saturday January 25, 8pm. Doors at 7pm, at the Elbo Room, 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. $15 in advance / $20 at the door. www.elboroom.com

Read more online at www.ebar.com

January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Shiny new Leather Mid-Atlantic greetings, and an introduction

Ron Stafford

Race Bannon

by Race Bannon

an Francisco and the overall Bay Area has one of the most vibrant leather and kink scenes in the United States and indeed the world. Yes, it’s changed and morphed as various factors have influenced how LGBT kinky folk live and express their alternative erotic identities and sexualities. But the scene is still rather awesome here, and I’m comfortable

saying it’s in pretty good shape nationally as well. Thus all the more reason I am honored to have been asked to carry on the legacy of the original writer of this column, Mr. Marcus (Marcus Hernandez), who established the Bay Area Reporter’s leather column as one of the preeminent leather news and information sources in the world. Upon Mr. Marcus’ passing, Scott Brogan took over this column and truly

Race Bannon

Thib Guicherd-Callin, Mr. Santa Clara county Leather 2012 and First Runner Up International Mr. Leather 2013, being photobombed at Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend in Washington, D.C.

did justice to Mr. Marcus’ memory. I promise to always try to live up to both men’s history as I embark on being the caretaker of this important piece of journalistic real estate. Lately I’ve heard from both local kinksters and those elsewhere that the scene just isn’t what it used to be. No, it’s not. I’m not sad about that even as I also simultaneously wish a few of the old ways were still with us. I think in many respects it’s now better and it’s that positive and upbeat perspective that I plan to have permeate my writing here. Can I be opinionated about certain things? Absolutely. But at the same time I pledge as the new writer of this column to make sure I represent a wide range of voices and opinions amid the commentary, news and information, even when those voices and opinions might disagree with my own perspective about something. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area we have an abundance of venues, organizations, resources and events that leather and kink citizens as well as visitors to our amazing city can access to have the fun and meaningful kinky life that is exactly what every kinkster deserves. At the same time, I think our area’s history of accepting those on the fringe bodes well for the future of kinky San Francisco since we all know that the alternative erotic landscape is changing, in some cases drastically, and we must either adapt or cease to enjoy something rather special. By representing and reporting on as wide a cross-section as possible of kinky San Francisco and the overall Bay Area, as well as the national scene, I hope to have this column serve as an important social discussion as well as a news and information source that will make our local and national scene even better. So why am I so upbeat about the kink scene? I think many bemoan the loss of some of our leather bars and other such icons of our past and feel that their demise represents the death knell of leather life. While I also mourn the loss of many such venues and some of the past institutions, I see no evidence at all that kinksters have not for the most part adapted quite well to figure out how to socialize, play and work together to maintain and improve a scene that definitely has something for everyone to enjoy. Some examples: We have the Leathermen’s Discussion Group to foster learning while at the same time providing a monthly community space. SF Ring does much the same on a smaller scale. The 15 Association continues its long history of brotherhood and play parties for men. The Powerhouse, SF Eagle, The Edge and Beatbox, among other bars and clubs, while not always 100% leather in this modern era, still do a fantastic job of making some some of their events focus on the kinky LGBT San Franciscan. We have a vibrant leather contest circuit culminating with the Mr. and Ms. San Francisco Leather contests, and our city hosts the annual International Ms. Leather contest. The Defenders, Golden Gate Guards, Legion of Sin MC, MAsT, Rubbermen of San Francisco, Homoto, The Exiles, Alameda County Leather Corps, San Francisco girls of Leather, the new Bay Area boys of Leather, and other clubs and groups continue to offer intimate community while at the same time doing some fun and generous things for members and non-members alike. While the Society of Janus caters primarily to heterosexuals, they are also quite welcoming to LGBT people. The Center for Sex and Culture continues to provide not only a great repository of our history,

Race Bannon

Justin Emerick, Mr. Los Angeles Leather 2013, Austin Able, Mr. 3rd Coast Leather 2013, Andy Cross, International Mr. Leather 2013, and Philip Beers at Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend in Washington, D.C.

but also many ongoing events. The Citadel provides valuable playspace for San Franisco including those in the LGBT ranks. The 15 Association and Gear Up Weekend provide out of town play events for men. BLUF SF hosts monthly meetups for the leather, uniform and gear enthusi-

ast. Young gay male kinksters can take advantage of Young Leathermen’s Discussion Group. Folsom Street Events mounts the greatest kink street festivals known to man. Mr. S Leather, Leather Masters, Worn Out West 2, Chaps, See page 9 >>

ebar.com

<< On the Tab

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

Bf eON THE-30T, A 2014 January 23

Underwear Party @ Powerhouse

Sat 25

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

Barry Lloyd @ Hotel Rex Talented vocalist, dubbed the “Crown Prince of Cabaret,” performs at the elegant hotel’s lounge. $25-$45. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. 857-1896. www.societycabaret.com

VIP @ Club 21, Oakland Hip Hop, Top 40, and sexy Latin music; gogo dancers, appetizers, and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $5 after all night. Dancing 9pm-3am. Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

★

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi

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

Fri 24 Angélique Kidjo @ Kanbar Hall Enjoy a night of conversation and songs with the amazing Grammy-winning vocalist and author, who’s accompanied by the John Santos Sextet. The event also includes a post-show feast of West African street food, drinks and design displays. $35. 8pm. Jewish Community Center, 3200 California st. 292-1200. www.jccsf.org

Bearracuda @ Beatbox The bear night’s underwear party invades the SoMa nightclub; DJs P Play and Robert Jeffrey. $6-$10. 9pm-3am. 314 11th St.

Fri 24

www.bearracuda.com

Boomer Banks

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

Sat 25

Boomer Banks @ Nob Hill Theatre Cazwell @ Big Top Vs. Trannyshack Jose Guzman-Colon

t’s a week of wonder, a week of fun. hip hop hunks, strippers, singers; I’m done!

Thu 23 Academy of Friends @ Bubble Lounge Toast this year’s Academy Awards nominees at a cocktail and champagne fundraiser for the AIDS/HIV nonprofit’s annual Oscar gala. $20. 6pm-8:30pm. 714 Montgomery St. 434-4204. www.aofsf.eventbrite.com

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre Whip it out in the underground playroom and enjoy participatory erotic fun with super-hung porn stud Boomer Banks; $10. 9pm (and don’t miss his stage shows Jan. 24 & 25, 8pm & 10pm, $25). 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

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

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

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

Jake Bugg, Albert Hammond, Jr., The Skins @ Fox Theatre, Oakland Three energetic bands perform (but we’re actually partial to the amazing opening rock/soul band, The Skins). $29.50. 8pm. 1807 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. www.theskinsband.com www.thefoxoakland.com

Joan Ryan @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The accomplished stage, TV and film actress performs her nuanced cabaret show. $30-$40. 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

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

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

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

Nap’s Karaoke @ Virgil’s Sea Room Sing out loud at the weekly least judgemental karaoke in town, hosted by the former owner of the bar. No cover. 9pm. 3152 Mission St. 829-2233. www.virgilssf.com

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

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

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

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Retro disco tunes and a fun diverse crowd, each Thursday. This week, a special 32nd annual 21st birthday bash for DJ Bus station John. $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

The super-hung porn stud shows off his immense…talent, and his tattoos. $25, 8pm & 10pm. Also Jan. 25. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

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

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

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun Open during renovations, the popular video bar ends each week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

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

Jason Brock, Kim Nalley @ Hotel Rex Society Cabaret presents the gay vocal powerhouse, and a guest appearance by the talented jazz songstress, accompanied by pianist Dwight Okamura. $26-$45. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. 857-1896. www.societycabaret.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland Eight bars, more dance floors, and a smoking lounge; the largest gay Latin dance night in the Bay Area. Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

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

Fri 24 Angélique Kidjo

Release @ Club OMG Weekly party at the intimate mid-Market club; rotating hosts and DJs, Top 40 dance remixes, giveaways, gogo hunks. Free before 11pm. $3. 9pm-2am. 43 Sixth St. www.clubomgsf.com www.facebook.com/ReleaseSF

Some Thing

Mica Sigourney and pals’ weekly offbeat drag performance night. 10pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

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

Big Top vs. Trannyshack @ Beaux Hip hop hunk Cazwell makes a guest appearance at Heklina and Joshua J.’s fun merged club drag act night (show at 11:30pm). Kidd Sysko DJs. $5-$10. 9pm2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com www.trannyshackcom

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

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

On the Tab>>

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland DJed tunes, gogo hotties, drag shows, drink specials, all at Oakland’s premiere Latin nightclub and weekly cowboy night. $10-$15. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Christina Olague Benefit @ The Edge Help out the local community activist whose home was destroyed by a fire; DJs include John Avalos and Pansy Division’s Jon Ginoli. 3pm-9pm. 4149 18th St. www.edgesf.com

Code @ The Edge

January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Brunch @ Hi Tops

Pedro Sa Moraes @ Yoshi’s

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

Brazilian guitarist-singer with a diverse array of styles, from classic Latin pop to experimental rock Tropicalia, performs with his band. $12-$50 (with dinner). 7pm.1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

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

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

Jock @ The Lookout

The monthly leather night returns; strict leather-kink dress code, please! 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. 863-4027. www.edgesf.com

The sporty fundraisers continue, this time with the SF Tsunami Water Polo team. 3pm-6pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Shangrila @ The Endup

Liquid Brunch @ Beaux

7th anniversary of the gay Asian club night, with DJs Jack Chang, Alan Bentley; hostess Khmera Rouge. $5-$20. 10pm6am. 401 6th St. www.endupsf.com

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

Thu 30 Anita Gillette

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

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550 The popular country western LGBT dance night celebrates a decade and a half of fun foot-stomping two-stepping and linedancing. $5. 5pm-10:30pm with lessons from 5:30-7:15 pm. Also Thursdays. 550 Barneveld Ave., and Tuesdays at Beatbox, $6. 6:30-11pm. 314 11th St. www.sundancesaloon.org

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

Mon 27 Cock and Bull Mondays @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Specials on drinks made with Cock and Bull ginger ale (Jack and Cock, Russian Mule, and more). 8pm-closing. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Tue 28

Broadway Bingo @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

13 Licks @ Q Bar

Joe Wicht and Katya Smirnoff-Skyy cohost the weekly fun musical theatre trivia singalong night. Pull up a comfy chair or sofa, enjoy a cocktail or three, and test your Broadway knowledge. Kanpai Lounge, Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. No cover. 7pm-10pm. 394-1111. www.hotelnikkosf.com/feinsteins.aspx

Weekly women’s night at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

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

Bombshell Betty & Her Burlesqueteers @ Elbo Room The weekly burlesque show of women dancers shaking their bonbons includes live music. $10. 9pm. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

Fri 24

Gang Bang Comedy @ Playland Charlie Ballard hosts an LGBT and gayfriendly comedy night, with Carrie Avritt, Jesus Fuentes, Yuri Kagen and Sampson McCormick. $10. 8pm. 1351 Polk St. 440-7529. www.playlandbar.com

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

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

Jason Brock

Way Back @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of vintage music videos, and retro drink prices. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Thu 30 Anita Gillette @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko Karaoke @ The Lookout

Christian Pepin @ Yoshi’s

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

Grammy-nominated Latin jazz percussionist performs with his band and guest vocalist Kina Mendez. $12- $50 (with dinner). 8pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600 www.yoshis.com

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun Honey Mahogany’s weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey’s Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gay-friendly comedy night, Jan 28 with headliner Scott Capurro. One-drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

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

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Mr. Transman @ Elbo Room

Monday Musicals @ The Edge

The first annual female-to-male pageant, created and hosted by Murray Hill, with the Original Plumbing creators, includes platform, swimsuit, interview and talent sections, performances by Ashley Fink ( Glee ) Freeplay Dance Crew, judges Shawna Virago, Michelle Tea and others. $15-$20. 8pm. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

The casts of local and visiting musical soften pop in to performs at the popular Castro bar’s musical theatre night. 7pm-2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing. 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

No No Bingo @ Virgil’s Sea Room

Winter Party @ Truck

VivvyAnne ForeverMore and Tom Temprano’s twice monthly bingo night (2nd & 4th Mondays). 8pm-12am. 3152 Mission St. 829-2233. www.virgilssf.com

Dress in white and enjoy wintry drinks, and enjoy ice sculptures, frozen shots and fun decor. $3. 10pm-2am. 1900 Folsom St. www.trucksf.com

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

Sun 26

Sports Night @ The Eagle

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar’s most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. 3pm-6pm (Also now open daily 11am-2am). 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Fri 24 Sam Harris

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

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

Torch @ Martuni’s Veronica Klaus hosts the weekly night of cabaret, jazz and blues music, with Tammy L. Hall and special guests. $15. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.facebook.com/veronica.klaus

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

The Broadway and TV actress-singer performs After All, her song-filled story cabaret show that includes her experiences as a performer, including her work in the original Broadway cast of Gypsy with Ethel Merman. $30-$40. 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.ticketweb.com

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

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

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

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

VIP @ Club 21, Oakland Hip-hop, Top 40, and sexy Latin music; gogo dancers, appetizers, and special guests. No cover before 11pm and just $5 afterward. Dancing 9pm-3am. Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Wed 29 Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular new sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Queer Salsa @ Beatbox Weekly Latin partner dance night. 8pm1am. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com

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

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

Threadbare

MenAtPlay’s suited for sex by John F. Karr

tell you that the specialty is men in suits. Their only rival in this is Michael Lucas, but his efforts come in second to the finer fit and more expensive look of the suits at MAP. And where Michael’s models generally banish the suits when they have sex, MAP indulges our full fetish by keeping the performers at least partially clothed. I’m a little surprised by the popularity of the suited sex scenario. Perhaps because I don’t work in the financial district, the only men I see wearing suits are bank tellers. I sure don’t see adult gay men dressing nice for the theatre, the ballet, symphony or opera. Where’d they get the idea that baggy jeans and polo shirts were either acceptable or respectable? At any rate, if the gay men I see at cultural events around town aren’t themselves wearing suits, they’re sure joining me in jacking off to images of men having sex in ‘em. And MenAtPlay serves up some excellently masculine men, of the Daniel Craig as James Bond variety. Just take a look at MAP star Tomas Brand, dick sticking outta the fly of his immaculate three-piecer, and you’ll see what I mean. This 45-year-old Swedish stud has filmed seven scenes for MAP. The one he made with his real-life spouse, Logan Rogue, is called “Deep Love,” and in it, deep is not just where Brand’s big dick goes, but where the guy’s emotions go, too. The site has featured 170 performers in more than 490 film scenes. You won’t find twinks, and there are only a few instances of fetishes other than suits, like cockrings, dildos, and oral cum shots (although the few instances indulged are choice). MAP goes for mature guys, for brawn and beards, with close-ups that clock the oh-somasculine details that get us off— the stubble, the wingtips, the over-

he current lowered rates for membership porn sites don’t signify a price war. They’re a war for survival. I said it long ago, the sites are too expensive. And these days, there are too many of them. So, now, there’s hardly one that isn’t offering 50 percent or more off. So I’ve joined a few. And I’ll be reporting on the content I find. Or don’t find—that being the ones, like Lucas, Hot House, Raging Stallion, who use DRM to prevent downloading of films. If I buy a DVD, I get to keep it. I feel the same about the scenes I’ve paid to gain access to at web sites. I wanna own them. I’d consider paying a low price for a scene in addition to a low price membership to a site, and perhaps site owners should consider that. Meanwhile, I’m taking advantage of the cheaper memberships at sites without DRM. MenAtPlay.com has been around for years— they’ve got postings of films they made in 2004. Their movies are impeccably produced. Plot lines and hooks are plausible, and there is frequently no dialogue at all, which heightens eroticism. Cum shots are repeated, from variant angles. The sets and locations are big budget, and the camera work, lighting and editing are superb. The filmed image is superlatively high grade. This causes slow download times for the highest quality (720p); I prefer the faster download of medium quality (480p), which looks great even after I subsequently expand it. A great number of the films—any made before 2010—are available only as wmv files, and badly need to be offered in updated formats. Meantime, get yourself a free VLC Media Player. It handles any sort of file with ease. The site’s name doesn’t really

RAGING STALLION EXCLUSIVE

BOOMER BANKS JANUARY 23 , 24 , 25 rd

MenAtPlay

Teammate take down at MenAtPlay—Samuel Colt, Wilfried Knight, Jake Genesis, Issac Jones, Morgan Black.

sized wristwatch. It also clocks lots of foreskin, since European casting prevails (lots of Italians and Spaniards, but hardly any Eastern Europeans—although buff, blond, and big-boned Boris, so entrancingly shaved, had me flailing). There have recently been more Americans at MAP. I clocked one of my faves, Cavin Knight, in a dildo solo, a duo, and a three-way, with co-stars including, respectively, a dildo, Spencer Reed, and Scott Carter. More recent names have included Landon Conrad, young hottie Adam Wirthmore, the return to porn of Paul Wagner, and the leave-taking from porn of Jake Genesis. He’s a MAP archetype, and filmed a number of sizzling scenes for MAP with co-stars Issac Jones, Samuel Colt, and the sensationally erotic bruiser, Sergi Serrano. Recent non-Americans on the site have been Rogan Richards, Marco Rubi (they are so hot together), Ben Brown, Damien Cross, Dato Foland, and the not-so-new Dean Monroe, in his farewell to porn. There’s lots of early Paddy O’Brian, knock-out blond Neil Stevens, and Scott Hunter, who is assertive playing a jock, and submissive as a butler—this is one instance where the fuck is all the hotter because no one undresses; the top has an open fly, and the bottom has a cock-receiving hole ripped in the ass of his pants, which will turn you into a panter. Speaking of dildos, there are intimate solos for Billy Berlin (who looks smashing in and partially out of a tuxedo), Sam Barclay (who arrives for filming with his butt plug firmly in place), as well as Johnny Hazzard, and hunk Rob Nelson.t

MenAtPlay

Leo Domenico roughs up Adam Wirthmore in the MenAtPlay scene, “deja.”

MenAtPlay

Billy Berlin, tux-resplendent, at MenAtPlay.

CIRCLE JERK WITH A PORN STAR UNDERGROUND PLAYROOM THU - JAN 23 rd @ 9PM MAIN STAGE HEADLINER JANUARY 24 th & 25 th SHOWTIMES @ 8PM & 10PM

Photo Credit: Raging Stallion

BOOMER BANKS

MenAtPlay

Tomas Brand gets an artful rubdown from Dario Beck in the MenAtPlay scene, “Unlimited.”

Read more online at www.ebar.com

January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Rubber Up

an Francisco Rubber Men, the super elastic fetish group, hosted a men’s and women’s fashion show cocktail event at Club OMG two weeks ago. Their upcoming events include Games Gear, Jan. 28 at Wicked Grounds, Swapmeet, Feb. 1 at the Powerhouse, and the threeday RubbDown at a few different San Francisco venues, Feb. 6-9, including Tenacious, a fashion show and dance night at Beatbox on Feb 8. For more info, visit www.rmsf.orgt

courtesy SF Rubber Men

Fashions in rubber at Club OMG.

Race Bannon

Brian Murdy and Jonathan Schroder at the Mr. S Leather booth in the vendor area at Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend in Washington, D.C.

Race Bannon

Rick Storer, Executive Director, and Jeffrey Storer, Directions of Operations, for the Leather Archives & Museum in the vendor area at Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend in Washington, D.C.

Leather

From page 5

Stompers, Rock Hard and other retailers offer us some of the best kinky shopping anywhere. Sober Kink Together offers a weekly 12step meeting that’s an accepting place for the kinky among us who need such support. Magnet and the SF Clinic provide nonjudgmental STI testing so we can all remain responsible when we play. The Bay Area Leather Alliance works to bring the various factions

together hosting the weekend that culminates in the Mr. San Francisco Leather contest as well as creating community space during SF Pride. Blow Buddies has regular kink-related nights. Race’s Bar, Leathermen at the Movies, SF Stogie and Whips in the Park are just some examples of the many local people and groups who are leveraging social media to create ways we can get offline and meet face to face. I am absolutely sure, as I write this first column, that I’m neglecting to mention a person, group,

event or resource, but those omissions are not intentional. I pledge to represent the full spectrum of the LGBT leather and kink scene. But for now, I hope you will accept what I’ve written here as my pledge of commitment to be the best possible columnist I can be and to do justice to the remarkable leather and kink scene in the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout the country. Thank you to the B.A.R. for entrusting me with this important responsibility. As I finish this first column, I am attending the Mid-Atlantic Leather weekend in Washington, DC (often referred to as MAL). This weekend draws thousands of kinky men from around the world to revel in each other’s company, network and play. As for the contest around which some of this weekend is centered, I don’t know the contest results yet, but quite frankly the important aspect of such weekends is not a single winner. Instead, it’s the camaraderie, bonds and connections that are created and fostered that really make such events special. If you are a kinkster, I recommend such events should they fit into your schedule and budget. They are quite special. While my primary focus will be on local happenings, this column is read by many across the country and even internationally. I will report from around the nation and world too. I will now wrap up this column and dive into the weekend here in Washington, D.C. Thank you for letting me talk to you by way of this column. I value each and every reader and hope I can make your leather and kink life better through the words I write. And for those who might simply be curious about such sexualities, I hope this column provides you with some information to begin your own erotic explorations. Be well, love well, and enjoy life, kinky and otherwise.t Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. You can reach him through the contact page on his website, www.bannon.com.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • January 23-29, 2014

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January 23-29, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Shooting Stars photos by Steven Underhill The stars, producers and creator of the new gay-themed series Looking attended a two-episode screening at the Castro Theatre on January 14. A packed audience enjoyed the show, whose first two episodes included scenes set in San Francisco bars El Rio, Esta Noche, and The Café, where the after-party was also held. Along with a bear-headed gogo guy (inspired by the much-missed Cockfight gogo Pansy the Drunken Panda?), local and Hollywood celebrities mingled with fans. Delicious food served by Taste Catering included an array hors d’oeuvres inspired by local venues. The Zuni hambuger, Yank Sing chicken chive dumplings, and the Sanraku sushi mini-plates were popular, as was the dessert display of coconut huckleberry tartlets, colorful macaroons, and pudding shooters. Tag your friends on our Facebook albums of this and many more events at www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife, and visit www.stevenunderhill.com. For more on Looking, visit www.hbo.com/looking.

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