july 21, 2011 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

8

14 Baldwin edges toward run

Karel speaks his mind

21

31st SF Jewish Film Fest

The

www.ebar.com

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

Dramatic changes in store for SF HIV prevention

New ballot battle coming to CA

by Matthew S. Bajko and Seth Hemmelgarn

by Lisa Keen

T

here is another anti-gay ballot measure brewing in California, this one, for 2012, seeks to repeal a recently passed state law that requires social studies curricula in California public schools to include information about the contributions of Rick Gerharter LGBT people.

State Senator See page 16 >> Mark Leno

Tenderloin Health works to fix problems

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

San Francisco agency that serves some of the city’s poorest residents and has appeared close to closing in recent years is working to improve its condition.

Tenderloin Health, which offers housing, primary care, and other services to people with HIV and AIDS and others, aims to seek new donors as Jane Philomen Cleland it tries to pull itself out of financial trouble.

David Fernandez David Fernandez, who became the nonprofit’s executive director in November 2009, wouldn’t offer many specifics about the agency’s strategic plans.

“The doors are still open and we’re making See page 13 >>

Vol. 41 • No. 29 • July 21-27, 2011

Jane Philomen Cleland

25 years of AIDS Walks M

embers of the San Francisco State University geography department and members of St. Francis Lutheran Church were just a few of the estimated 25,000 walkers who participated in the 25th annual AIDS Walk San Francisco Sunday, July 17 in Golden Gate Park. The San Francisco AIDS Founda-

tion, which organizes the event, said that the AIDS Walk raised more than $3 million for the foundation and 48 other Bay Area HIV/AIDS agencies. The opening ceremonies featured Judy Kaye, from Tales of the City, who sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” to energize walkers as they set out on the 6.2-mile (10k) route.

C

ome September 1 San Francisco’s HIV prevention efforts are set to undergo a sea change.

New contracts totaling nearly $7 million for AIDS agencies are expected to take affect that day. Funding for HIV prevention tactics of old, however, is giving way for new priorities health officials hope Rick Gerharter will lead to dramatic See page 17 >>

Dr. Grant Colfax

Senate panel told DOMA harms same-sex couples

by Lisa Keen

R

epresentative John Lewis, a legendary civil rights leader, led off Wednesday’s historic hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, likening it to laws decades ago that required separate water fountains and restrooms for “whites” and “coloreds.”

“I find it unbelievable in the year 2011,” said Lewis (D-Georgia), “that there is still a need to hold hearings and debates about whether a human being should be able to marry the person they love.”

But there was a hearing, and there was debate. There was also strong emotion.

Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking minority member on the committee, came well prepared to do battle, bringing in a full complement of his allowed witnesses, minus one whom he said was afraid to testify against repeal of DOMA for fear of being harassed.

But no other Republican senator showed up to ask questions and Democratic senators in support of the Respect of Marriage Act (SB 598) were also well prepared.

Bill sponsor Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), who chaired the committee

Rudy K. Lawidjaja

Representatives John Lewis (D-Georgia), Steve King (R-Iowa) and Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) were three of the witnesses who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, July 20. Lewis and Nadler spoke in favor of repealing the Defense of Marriage Act; King spoke against repeal.

for a portion of the July 20 hearing, said DOMA denies rights and benefits to legally married same-sex couples. And she vowed that, “However long it takes” to repeal DOMA, “we will achieve it.”

Benefits that are denied include Social Security, access to health insurance, and the

{ FIRST OF TWO SECTIONS }

inability of a same-sex spouse to sponsor his or her spouse for immigration purposes.

Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota) called DOMA an “immoral and discriminatory” law and he challenged Grassley’s chief witness, an See page 16 >>

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

<< Community News

July 21-27, 2011

▼

New mental health center opens in the Castro

by Heather Cassell

I

t’s been an emotional year for providers of LGBT mental health services since the closure of New Leaf: Services for Our Community nine months ago, but it appears that summer might finally be lifting some of the gray clouds with the opening of Queer LifeSpace, a new low-income mental health services organization.

Located in the same building as the San Francisco Therapy Collective, a for-profit counseling collective, in the heart of the Castro, Queer LifeSpace began conducting intakes earlier this week in its deep wine and iris colored offices overlooking the Walgreens parking lot.

The organization is spearheaded by four former New Leaf mental health and substance abuse therapists who founded the SF Therapy Collective.

Friday, July 22 marks the beginning for Queer LifeSpace with the opening of its doors and an invitation-only party, said Nancy Heilner, executive director.

Queer LifeSpace is the newest organization to fill the gaping hole in mental health services left by New Leaf ’s closure last October.

The UCSF AIDS Health Project and Lyon-Martin Health Services both picked up the shuttered agency’s displaced low-income clients and integrated them into its counseling programs. Lyon-Martin, however, is experiencing its own fiscal problems and is not accepting new patients.

The SF Therapy Collective was launched by Heilner, Chris Holleran, Stacey Rodgers, and Joe Voors shortly after New Leaf closed its doors. The therapists, who are gay and lesbian and worked together as a team in the adult substance abuse program at New Leaf, originally attempted to lower their counseling

Cabure A Bonugli

From left, Queer LifeSpace founders Joe Voors, Nancy Heilner, Chris Holleran and Stacey Rodgers.

fees to accommodate and continue to see their low-income clients. But the rates simply weren’t low enough in spite of the collective’s “generous sliding scale” and they couldn’t feasibly lower the fees further, Heilner said.

Affordable queer therapy The solution came recently when an opportunity allowed the collective to “fulfill our total vision of providing low-cost mental health services,” Heilner said. All the pieces came together, including training future therapists.

“We all worked together at New Leaf and felt really passionate about providing services to our community,” said Heilner, 55, who started as a volunteer at New Leaf in 2004, while working as the director of community-based programs of Edgewood Center for Children and Families. She was hired as manager of New Leaf ’s adult substance abuse program and the HIV mental health program four years later.

“We believe that people deserve good quality mental health [and] substance abuse services, even if they can’t afford private therapy,” added Heilner, aware of the importance of the organization centered in the heart of the Castro. “We are going to be a safe place that our community can come to and know that they will be understood.”

Rodgers, who is director of communications of Queer LifeSpace, added that for some people, receiving treatment provided by individuals in their community and culture is “very healing” and “we want to be able to make sure that’s available here.”

Rodgers, who is in her 40s, was a counselor in the adult substance abuse program at New Leaf for five years.

Holleran, who is director of operations, handles intake for Queer LifeSpace. Heilner, Holleran, and Rodgers are considering seeing some clients on the nonprofit side of their venture, but Voors, who is director of finances, won’t provide counseling services, Heilner said.

Currently, the new counseling organization is able to exist solely on client fees, thanks to $25,000 seed money provided by the SF Therapy Collective, said Heilner, and up to an estimated $20,000 of in-kind donations, added Rodgers.

The estimated budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year is $150,000.

Heilner said the group expects the budget to more than double to $350,000 for 2012-13.

The therapists are not drawing a salary now. The executive director, and directors of operations, communications, and finance will each earn $35,000, Heilner said.

Individuals will be able to see a therapist for $20 per session and group therapy is $10, she said. Most

of the counseling will be provided by six of the interns that will begin soon, said Heilner.

SF Therapy Collective will refer clients who can’t afford its services to Queer LifeSpace, said Heilner.

The two entities are separate.

The collective’s goal is to provide long term support to clients who need the services, Heilner and Rodgers said, rather than shorterterm services, like Lyon-Martin currently provides, according to medical director Dr. Dawn Harbatkin.

Therapy, not a luxury item “Therapy isn’t a luxury item,” said Rodgers, who pointed out that maintaining a healthy emotional life is a “foundational layer” that helps keep individuals from selfdestructive behavior and enables them to lead healthy lives.

Heilner added that it’s especially essential for LGBT individuals, who oftentimes experience trauma coming from very homophobic places or have anti-gay experiences as children or adults.

“Getting the therapeutic interventions that can help people kind of heal and recover from the experiences they’ve had in their lives really is essential to having a healthy thriving queer community,” Heilner said.

Queer LifeSpace will provide individual, group, and couples counseling as well as integrated mental health and substance abuse services, according to Heilner and Rodgers. Collectively the therapists specialize in trans-affirming therapy, substance abuse issues, and trauma recovery.

Establishing a transgender support group is a priority, said Heilner. Other support groups will be client and intern driven, she added.

The organization is also reaching out to other mental health agencies and programs working with LGBT individuals in order to reduce duplication of efforts and to work in coalition, Heilner and Rodgers said in response to the Bay Area Reporter’s questions about services for bisexuals, seniors, transgenders, and youth.

“We are definitely going to be open to the community telling us what it needs and be as responsive to that,” said Heilner, emphasizing that the organization is in its infancy and is not able to “do everything at once.”

Heilner and her colleagues don’t expect client fees will sustain Queer LifeSpace.

The organization’s leadership is researching potential community and corporate foundation grants as well as individual donor support. Due to budget cuts, they aren’t seeking city funding, Heilner and Rodgers said.

See page 16 >>

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Community News>>

July 21-27, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Jane Warner Plaza plaque fund tops $4k

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

public fundraising drive to help pay for a dedication plaque at the Castro’s Jane Warner Plaza now tops $4,000.

The Castro parklet is named after the lesbian San Francisco Patrol Special Police officer whose beat included the city’s gayborhood.

Warner died on May 8, 2010 at the age of 53 after a battle with ovarian cancer.

But the campaign is still short $3,000 as the plaque is now estimated to cost $7,000 to produce.

While organizers believed the city would help cover the expense, a commitment they contend openly gay former District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty made, no such funding has been approved to date.

The city’s Patrol Special Police Officers Association, which established the Officer Jane Warner Memorial Fund in order to pay for the signage, reported this week that a series of summer fundraisers had helped it to raise more than half of the plaque’s estimated costs.

Alan Byard, president of the association, told the Bay Area Reporter this week that Dufty, who is now running for mayor, had pledged to him at the plaza’s dedication ceremony last November that the city would assist in the effort by paying for half of the signage costs. At the time, it was thought the plaque would only cost $3,000.

“I spoke with Bevan last Thursday and I’m giving him until this Friday to have his assistant call me with an update as to where we are with the making of the plaque. I expect the city to honor its commitment to paying for half of the cost,” Byard, who replaced Warner as president, wrote in an emailed response to questions this week. “I know Bevan is busy but this will be pressed until

Lois Pearlman

Volunteers are still short of their fundraising goal to cover the costs of a plaque honoring Patrol Special Police Officer Jane Warner, shown here in 2009.

there is a firm answer.”

Dufty told the B.A.R. this week that he never promised to find city money.

“Where would the city come up with that? I thought it was a private fundraising campaign we were having,” he said. “I committed to write a check and I have responded to them I am happy to set up a fundraising event in August or September.”

Yet after the B.A.R. contacted him for this story, Dufty learned his campaign consultants had squashed the fundraiser without his knowledge.

“My campaign manager vetoed it and said I had to focus on my own campaign. I am very sorry,” said Dufty, adding he was donating $100 himself toward the plaque fund.

It is the second time Dufty, who pushed to see the outdoor plaza be named after Warner, has

apologized for mishandling the fundraising efforts. In April he took responsibility for what had been until then a lackluster effort to secure the necessary money.

Jon Gray, a gay man who has applied to be a patrol special and is running to be the city’s next sheriff, has helped host two Castro bar fundraisers to raise money for the plaque. He has also expressed doubts at seeing the city assist in completing the fundraising drive.

“I got involved because Bevan Dufty dropped the ball on this thing.

He said he would take care of it. Well, he didn’t handle it,” said Gray. “Now Bevan is not in office, who is going to get money for this plaque when there is no money?”

Openly gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener told the B.A.R. this week no one had contacted him about having the city pony up money toward the plaque.

“This is the first I am hearing about specifics for the city to put in that money,” Wiener told a reporter.

“I know that there was a discussion about finishing the fundraising.

I believe Bevan was going to be helping with that. He started out that fundraising.”

With the budget for the new fiscal year already settled, Wiener was skeptical much could be done at this point.

“It would have been good for them to approach me during the budget process. But that now is effectively over,” he said.

Another fundraiser for the plaque will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday, July 24 at the Edge bar at the corner of 18th and Collingwood Streets in the Castro.

Dubbed “Whatever happened to Baby Jane, a beer bust,” the event costs $8 and is being thrown by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to recoup the $1,000 the drag nun

group already donated for the signage. According to organizer Sister Eve Volution, anything raised over that amount will go to the plaque fund.▼

Full disclosure: Warner was a contributing columnist for the B.A.R. and penned the paper’s crime column. Matthew S. Bajko wrote the text for the plaque mockup.

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

<< Open Forum

July 21-27, 2011

Volume 41, Number 29 July 21-27, 2011 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Thomas E. Horn Bob Ross (Founder, 1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador • Erin Blackwell Roger Brigham • Scott Brogan Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • Raymond Flournoy David Guarino • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • David Lamble Michael McDonagh • Paul Parish Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Bob Roehr • Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Ed Walsh • Sura Wood

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

GENERAL MANAGER Michael M. Yamashita DISPLAY ADVERTISING Colleen Small Scott Wazlowski CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING David McBrayer

NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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News Editor • news@ebar.com Arts Editor • arts@ebar.com Advertising • advertising@ebar.com Letters • letters@ebar.com A division of Benro Enterprises, Inc. © 2011 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.

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▼

A good first step T

he White House took another step in support of marriage equality when press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday that President Barack Obama will endorse Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Respect for Marriage Act to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. The president’s support for repealing DOMA came one day before the first hearing on repealing the hideous law and marks yet another step on his path to embracing marriage equality. At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, several gays and lesbians testified about the harm DOMA has caused for them, their families, and the community at large.

DOMA, which was passed in 1996, is the stranglehold that prevents married same-sex couples from receiving all the benefits that opposite-sex married couples receive.

Among those testifying was Ron Wallen from Indio, California, who recounted the many changes he has had to endure following the death of his husband of 55 years. While the couple were legally married in 2008, they had been together for decades. Wallen, 77, has seen his monthly income slashed to $900 (from $3,050) because he cannot receive his deceased spouse’s Social Security benefits, as would be the case if the spouse of an opposite-sex couple died.

Likewise, Connecticut resident Andrew Sorbo, who is 64, lost his husband of nearly 30 years. They were married in that state, but after his husband’s death, Sorbo had to struggle with picking up the pieces.

“DOMA hung over us,” he told the committee.

Much of the testimony at the hearing touched on the financial aspects of DOMA, and there are many: Social Security, the estate tax, health insurance. There are also others, such as being unable to sponsor a same-sex spouse for immigration purposes.

Children, of course, were another focal point of the hearing. But committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) eviscerated Thomas Minnery, senior vice president of Focus on the Family, when he sought to determine whether children of same-sex couples are at a disadvantage because of DOMA. Grudgingly, Minnery had to acknowledged that yes, they are.

Witnesses such as Democratic Representatives Jerrold Nadler (New York) and John Lewis (Georgia) both offered powerful statements about how discrimination is wrong. Lewis, a veteran of the civil rights movement, said, “The Defense of Marriage Act is a stain on our democracy.” Nadler derided opponents who maintain children are better off with oppositesex parents, saying there is no credible support for that argument.

The Senate committee hearing was also a good

first step for Congress. The Senate, controlled by Democrats, might be able to pass the Respect for Marriage Act, but the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, with its many tea party members, is highly unlikely to approve it, if a vote is even held. That means it’s critical that in next year’s election, either Democrats take back control of the House or enough moderate Republicans are elected and some of the ultra-conservative tea partiers are tossed out of office. In order for the bill to proceed, we need a supportive majority in the House, whatever that looks like. It is also crucial that Democrats maintain control of the Senate.

We saw that supportive majority in the Senate in action on Monday, when openly gay attorney J. Paul Oetken was confirmed as a federal judge, a first. The Senate vote was 80-13, meaning many Republicans voted for him.

We urge Congress to keep pushing for DOMA repeal. Every time there’s a hearing on this unfair law, more minds are changed, as more people realize how discriminatory DOMA is.▼

In a New York minute: Nothing wrong with pre-nups

by Heba Nimr, Dylan Miles, and Charles Spiegel

I

n a few days, same-gender couples will be legally marrying under New York law for the first time. Regardless of how you feel about the institution, there is no escaping that at this moment in U.S. history, equal access to and recognition of marriage is a hot topic.

While there are numerous meaningful ways people create chosen families and relationships, marriage is one of the very few upon which state and federal government and various private entities choose to bestow many benefits you can’t get through any other means. Many of these benefits are so basic they ought to be considered universal rights – think health care. Because these benefits are often attached to only this very narrow segment of relationship-recognition (marriage, domestic partnership or civil union), then most reasonable people who newly qualify for access to that recognition will need to ask themselves: should we get married?

After all, who doesn’t need health care? Marrying may be the one way to get it. But, are there any drawbacks to marrying?

The New York milestone reminds us again that opportunities for same-gender couples to ask and answer these questions have come and will continue to come at a fast pace. As witnessed in California, those opportunities arise in a flurry of media attention – as well as amid real or perceived uncertainty about how long those rights will remain accessible and amid questions regarding future recognition in other states and by the federal government.

Fueled by this frenzy of attention and uncertainty, many same-gender couples will be tempted to run out and “make it official:” grab your rights now before they disappear. And for many, there is a draw to marrying in the midst of that often longed-for, but so rare, collective celebration of the significance of our love: the romance of marrying in this moment of history.

The romance of this historical moment for samegender couples is not only about the love between

two individuals, but also and perhaps even more so about the feeling of finally “belonging” and having that love collectively embraced and celebrated. So, it makes sense that rash decisions will be made. Heterosexual partners in this country have been making those rash decisions for a very long time (though perhaps with a less-than-conscious need for the rights and community/social belonging they may take for granted).

If you are part of a same-gender couple, you may be tempted to seize the moment and rush to New York to marry. It’s relatively easy to do: New York has no residency requirement to marry, and unlike many other licenses (ever gotten a driver’s license?) – a marriage license requires no test or proof of knowledge of its consequences.

Yet, there are indeed many consequences; a New York marriage for a California samegender couple is not just symbolic. As uncertain as some of the current legal landscape for samegender marriages is, it is now certain and clear that same-gender California couples who legally marry in New York or elsewhere return home with all the rights and responsibilities of marriage that the state of California has to offer (except the actual name “marriage”).

Marriage in another jurisdiction is a big deal with real and concrete rights and responsibilities in California. There are so many such rights and responsibilities that it is impossible to outline them here or in any other brief writing; they are the sum total of California’s family, probate and other statutes and related case law or, in other words, they are in your local law library’s entire family law section and the many ways those statutes and court rulings are being interpreted and practiced daily in many settings. We say this not to overwhelm you, but to hopefully be clear that marriage is serious and has significant legal and financial implications.

That said, we do indeed encourage you to seize this moment. This is a good moment to think about marriage and relationships.

Our recommendation: first pause, ask some

questions, and inform yourselves and your partners and communities about the legal and financial meanings of marriage. And then, engage in conversations about whether marriage is a good fit for your specific circumstances and goals.

When you have this information and have engaged in these conversations, you can then decide: (a) Yes, this is the license I want, exactly as-is; or (b) By and large, this license sounds good to me, but I want to change a few things through a pre-nuptial agreement; or (c) No, I do not want this license. Any of these decisions are good decisions as long as they are informed, and done intentionally.

In most cases, making these informed decisions is its own significant journey. Read the legal self-help books (Nolo Press has got some great ones) and check the websites of www.nclrights. org, www.ecqa.org, and www.lambdalegal.org for basic information. Talk with and listen to yourself and your partner. And, yes, consult with a family law lawyer and perhaps a tax professional. What are your specific and real circumstances and goals and how would marriage further or hinder or complicate those goals? Are there other or supplementary ways to meet some of those goals that are most important to you (i.e., powers of attorney or co-habitation or co-ownership agreements, etc.)?

A lot of these conversations – and this process – may be difficult. Most of them have to do with intimate issues such as money, successes, failures, illness, and death; subjects that, frankly, those of us raised in the U.S., no matter our class background, have little social training or experience talking about openly and honestly. However, difficult conversations can lead to deeper understanding, and to greater intimacy. In fact the ability to have these difficult conversations is an important key to a strong relationship. And stronger relationships of all kinds make up strong communities.

We recognize, too, that these conversations may also reveal that some partners are actually more incompatible than they realized. As difficult as that realization may be, as family law See page 14 >>

▼

Letters >>

July 21-27, 2011 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Difference between Obama, GOP Victoria Brownworth’s constant use of her Lavender Tube column to bash President Barack Obama is wearing thin [“Dog days of summer on the Lavender Tube,” July 7]. While there are plenty of legitimate reasons for discontent with the administration (and not only on LGBT issues), her assertion that any potential Republican nominee will have “exactly the same stance” as Obama on marriage equality is ludicrous.

Michele Bachmann, near the top of GOP polls, recently signed a pledge to ban same-sex marriage that calls homosexuality both a choice and a health risk, and denounced the Iowa judges who legalized marriage equality as “black robed masters” who had overstepped their authority. Front-runner Mitt Romney (whose principles, admittedly, might change if the next focus group tells him they should) supports an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

Obama opposes the Defense of Marriage Act and recently filed a federal court brief making the case for it to be overturned. The Republicans, meanwhile, have hired their own attorneys to defend DOMA. Is there some part of this that Brownworth doesn’t understand?

Seriously? There is a difference between an actual enemy and an imperfect friend.

The Bay Area Reporter needs a new TV critic. Now. Bruce Mirken San Francisco

Obama needs gay support I must take exception to your recent editorial [“Obama should state the obvious,” July 7]. Your political naivete is showing.

I have no doubt that our president supports same-sex marriage but he is first, and foremost, a politician and wants to be re-elected. Just because a poll indicates that the public is now supportive of gay marriage, doesn’t

make it so. What some people tell a poll-taker may be vastly different than what they say in a voting booth.

He has indicated support for domestic partnerships and equality for gays. He eliminated “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” he withdrew the lawsuit in support of the Defense of Marriage Act, and he has publicly supported us many times.

If he is (hopefully) re-elected, I’m sure he will show public support for gay marriage but for now, he needs the support of independent voters and at least two or three non-bigoted Republicans (are there any?) for his agenda.

Rather than criticize him, let’s keep an open mind and support him.

Dean Tomich Los Gatos, California

Middle East propaganda game When Israel sponsors San Francisco’s Frameline LGBT Film Festival, queer groups object. They accuse Israel of “pinkwashing” its brutal occupation of Palestine by posing as our friends.

Now a new Israeli fraud aimed at gays has been exposed. When activists from all over the world tried last month to sail to Gaza to deliver needed supplies, a YouTube video popped up of an “American gay rights activist” claiming he was barred from the trip for being gay and linking the flotilla to Hamas. The video was touted on Twitter by staffers from three Israeli government offices.

Turns out the “activist” was actually an Israeli actor, and according to Israeli paper Haaretz, “The premier’s office did not deny that that the government was involved in the video’s production.” The video was yanked as a hoax.

Don’t believe Israeli officials claiming to be friends of LGBTs. They are using us to cover up their crimes: occupation of Palestine and ethnic cleansing of its people.

Jay Lyon San Francisco

B.A.R. publisher receives French honor Compiled by Cynthia Laird

T

homas E. Horn, publisher of the Bay Area Reporter, received the Commander of the French National Order of Merit during a ceremony last week that was part of San Francisco’s Bastille Day celebration.

The July 14 decoration of Horn, a high civilian honor, took place at a reception in the Green Room at the Veterans Memorial Building.

Horn is a longtime lover of French culture. He is the chairman of the San Francisco-Paris Sister City Committee.

“I greatly appreciate this honor bestowed by the president of France,” Horn told the B.A.R. “French language and culture have long been personal passions. This passion has led down many interesting paths.”

Brick campaign to raise funds for MCC-SF Metropolitan Community Church-San Francisco is in the midst of a unique fundraising drive that leaders hope will end in a “yellow brick road” in front of the Eureka Street church.

The church is repaving the sidewalk in front of its building with personalized, engraved yellow bricks for its “Miracle on Eureka Street” fundraising campaign.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for LGBT people and allies to ensure their stories are written into MCC-SF, LGBT, and San Francisco history,” senior provisional pastor the Reverend Dr. William H. Knight said in a statement.

The project was born of necessity: in April the city ordered the Castro church to fix the sidewalk after overgrown tree roots burst through and broke the concrete. The church decided to turn adversity into opportunity; hence the fundraising campaign.

Kristine Poggioli, a member of the MCC-SF board, told the B.A.R.

Tom Gibbons Photography

B.A.R. publisher Thomas E. Horn, center, is congratulated by Romain Serman, consul general of France in San Francisco, left, and Michel Barnier, who represented the French foreign minister.

that the fundraiser is for mandated city repairs but they are hoping for extra funds that can be used for other church repairs, operation, and its social justice programs.

The sidewalk repair, including trimming the tree roots, repairing the sewer lines, and the cost of ordering the bricks and paving, is estimated at $15,000, she said.

The bricks are available in a variety of sizes, with space available for engraving some text. A four-inch by eight-inch brick costs $250 (with one to three lines of text, 23 characters per line). Larger sizes are also available, ranging in cost from $500 to $5,000. Mini replicas of the purchased bricks are also available for $15 or $25. MCCSF is a 501zzz(c)3 organization; 100 percent of the donations qualify as a charitable contribution.

Poggioli said the response so far has been positive. But she noted the deadline for placing orders is midnight August 7. About 30 bricks have been purchased so far, she said.

The church would be happy to sell 200 bricks by the deadline.

“People tell us they are stuck on what to write. We say, just write your name – it’s classic and elegant,” she said.

Non-MCC-SF members, including local businesses, LGBT groups, and straight allies, have been part of the early orders, she added.

The new yellow brick road is expected to be dedicated in midSeptember, during the church’s annual homecoming weekend.

For more information or to place an order, visit www.mccsf.org.

Change for Castro Valley Pride event Due to the community’s overwhelmingly positive response, the organizers of Saturday’s first Pride event in Castro Valley have had to move the location.

It was previously reported that the rally and march would start in the parking lot of a local drugstore.

Now, however, the July 23 “Rainbow Rally in the Valley” will take place at Castro Valley High School, 19400 Santa Maria Avenue. Participants should meet in the senior lot on nearby Redwood Road at 12:30 p.m.

The grassroots event, organized

by Frankie Canto, Johnna Murch, and Holly Ann Zeitz, will feature speakers and musicians.

For more information, see the group’s Facebook page, “Castro Valley Pride 2011.”▼

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

<< International News

July 21-27, 2011

▼

Australia continues to block overseas gay marriages

by Rex Wockner

A

ustralia is continuing to prevent its citizens from entering into a same-sex marriage abroad, the group Australian Marriage Equality said July 8.

Specifically, Australia refuses to issue a “certificate of non-

impediment to marriage” to any same-sex couple. The document is needed abroad to prove that the individuals are not already married in Australia.

AME said Prime Minister Julia Gillard defended the policy as recently as June 14.

AME national convener Alex

Greenwich called it “petty and meanspirited.”

“The Gillard government’s policy of not allowing same-sex marriages in Australia forces same-sex couples to go overseas if they want to marry, but when they apply to marry in another country Julia Gillard is there saying ‘no’ as well,” Greenwich said.

He said the policy causes headaches for same-sex couples.

“This means some couples miss out on entitlements and protections they can only receive overseas if they are married in a country that would otherwise recognize their commitment, and it causes endless hassles for couples who have planned their wedding only to find it can’t go ahead,” he said.

2,700 same-sex marriages in Argentina Some 2,700 same-sex couples have tied the knot in Argentina since samesex marriage became legal a year ago.

According to the Argentina LGBT Federation (FALGBT), that amounts to about 1 percent of the nation’s gay/ lesbian population.

Male couples have outnumbered female couples by about 20 percent.

“A year after the approval of the law, around 3,000 couples have married across the nation without incident, which shattered the fallacious argument, put forth by sectors that opposed the law, concerning problems, disorders, and complications,” said FALGBT President Esteban Paulón.

“The national dimension of the marriages speaks also of the profound reparation that this law has brought for a historically excluded and discriminatedagainst group,” he said.

“Our families today have the same rights, and we are exercising them.”

Meanwhile, a same-sex-marriage bill is set for consideration in the parliament of next-door Uruguay, the South American nation that, in many ways, is most similar to Argentina.

Same-sex marriage also is legal in 11 other countries – Belgium, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Mexico (where same-sex marriages are allowed only in the capital city but are recognized nationwide) and the United States, where same-sex marriage is legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York (beginning July 24), Vermont, and Washington, D.C. In addition, same-sex marriages from elsewhere are recognized as marriages in the U.S. states of Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island and California (if the marriage took place before Proposition 8 passed).

Lithuania reverses course on gay information ban Lithuania’s Parliament has banned discrimination based on sexual orientation in advertising.

The move was a turnaround from earlier drafts of the same bill, which banned homosexual topics in advertising.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard

The new language says that “advertising and audiovisual commercial communications must not publish information that humiliates human dignity, discriminating or encouraging discrimination based on ... sexual orientation.”

The Lithuanian Gay League credited MP Valentinas Stundys and Deputy Speaker Algis Caplikas with engineering the about-face.

The European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights applauded the development.

“This is a powerful message sent by Lithuania’s legislature, both to its people and to the rest of the EU,” said Intergroup Co-President Ulrike Lunacek. “However, we remain concerned that the Law on the Protection of Minors from the Detrimental Effects of Public Information is still in place, and that a ban of gender reassignment surgery was recently proposed.”

The “detrimental effects” law, which took effect in March 2010, bans information that promotes sexual relationships, “denigrates family values” or encourages a nonheterosexual concept of marriage and family.

Such information is prohibited when it could be accessed by a minor, such as in magazines and libraries and on the Internet.

Amnesty International said the law promotes censorship and “is an anachronism in the European Union.”

It also appears to be in conflict with the new advertising law.▼ Bill Kelley contributed to this report.

Correction The July 14 article, “Castro queer youth space off to slow start” misidentified recreation leader Paola Marinero’s sexual orientation. She is an out lesbian. The online version has been corrected.

bartabsf.com

▼

Politics >>

July 21-27, 2011 •

Lesbian adds Green tint to mayor’s race

by Matthew S. Bajko

G

reen Party candidate Terry Baum is angling to become San Francisco’s first out lesbian mayor.

But in a city dominated by Democrats with no elected lesbian officeholders, the Castro resident and celebrated playwright is fully aware her bid is a long shot.

Yet, at the same time, Baum argues the obstacles she faces in capturing Room 200 at City Hall come November could also be advantageous. Voters, she argues, can help her not only make history as being the city’s first mayor from the LGBT community but also ending Democratic dominance at City Hall.

“There are a lot of problems in San Francisco and Democrats have been governing a long time. They have to take responsibility for those problems,” said Baum, 64, in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

“We have a one-party city. It is not healthy for North Korea being a oneparty state and it is not healthy for San Francisco.”

City Hall is awash in cronyism, contends Baum, who argues electing her mayor would bring that to an end.

“The best way to break that up and bring some fresh air in would be to elect a Green mayor,” she said.

“People feel disconnected from politics because there aren’t enough voices.”

Due to ranked-choice voting, Baum argued she can’t be tarred and feathered as a spoiler candidate, as Green candidates have been blamed in the past.

“There is no issue of throwing away your vote,” said Baum. “People are free to vote for me as their number one and put the person they think has a better chance of winning as their number two.”

This is Baum’s second bid at public office; she ran for Congress against Nancy Pelosi (D) in 2004 as a writein candidate (she lost a legal battle to be listed on the ballot). There were 6,132 write-in votes that year; the results do not disclose the names people wrote downz.

Seeing a lack of true progressive candidates running to be mayor (before District 11 Supervisor John Avalos pulled papers), Baum decided to join the fray.

“Running for mayor and putting out my ideas, it is a good thing for San Francisco to have my voice in the race,” said Baum, a Los Angeles native who moved to town in 1975 and has lived in the Castro for 33 years.

She is the second LGBT candidate to attract attention in the race. But unlike gay former District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty, Baum is not seen as one of the top contenders in the race and has yet to be invited to any candidate debates.

She called Dufty, whom she did not vote for as supervisor, “great at the pothole level” but the wrong fit for mayor, as he is a product of the Democratic machine.

“If every single person who agreed with the Green Party over the Democratic Party voted for me, I would have a chance of winning,” insisted Baum.

While she is not a current or former politician and hasn’t raised “obscene amounts of money,” like the top nine mayoral candidates, Baum said that should not preclude her from taking part in candidate forums.

“I am the only Green. We should have a range of opinions in debates,” she said.

Courtesy Terry Baum

Mayoral candidate Terry Baum

Support for artists like herself is one of her main campaign platforms.

She is part of the Crackpot Crones, a sketch comedy and improv act with a “feminist and lesbian perspective.”

Her ideas include launching an annual mural festival to attract tourists and paying artists to repair murals that are damaged. Baum also would promote nightly arts walk events around the city and wants to see housing dedicated for artists.

The city’s arts program along the Mid-Market corridor doesn’t go far enough, said Baum. She would push to see blighted and vacant spaces be given over to artists and arts groups for performance spaces and studios.

“The interests of artists, I feel, are taken for granted by the institutions of San Francisco,” said Baum.

Having lived in Amsterdam for five years, Baum would like to foster a squatters movement similar to what she experienced in the European city.

Vacant buildings would be used as housing until the property owners made use of them.

“As mayor I would support the nascent squatting movement that is now underground,” said Baum.

Another major issue is seeing a public transit system “so great you don’t ever need your car.” She proposes a Downtown Transit Assessment District that would help fund running Muni buses every 10 minutes from 6 a.m. to midnight and every 30 minutes during late-night hours.

She also would halt the Muni’s central subway “boondoggle” project, which will bore a tunnel from the ballpark to Chinatown.

“I would stop that if I could and use that money to fund buses,” she said.

Having raised less than $20,000 to date, Baum is focused on collecting enough signatures to defray the $5,000 filing fee to get on the ballot.

From noon to 3 p.m. this Saturday, July 23 she and her “Baum Squad” of supporters will be at the 24th Street Whole Foods in Noe Valley, and during the same time Sunday, July 24 she will be at the Stonestown Farmers Market.

For more info visit her campaign site at terryjoanbaum.com/.

Drag queen nabs entertainment post In a rejection of its Rules Committee recommendation, the Board of Supervisors selected Glendon Hyde, whose drag persona is Anna Conda, for a seat on the city’s Entertainment Commission over that of Castro resident and lawyer D. Gill Sperlein.

Board President David Chiu was the deciding factor in the 6-5

vote. The board’s two gay members split, with David Campos backing Hyde and Scott Wiener supporting Sperlein.

Shortly after the decision, Hyde posted a note of thanks on his Facebook account and added, “Now let’s get to work!”

The two gay applicants sought the community neighborhood seat that had been held by gay South of Market resident and leader Jim Meko. During the rules hearing earlier this month, Meko failed to garner support for a third term on the oversight panel.

A number of supervisors said they were looking for fresh blood for the commission. But Hyde’s connections to nightlife interests had triggered concerns about his ability to be a voice for neighborhood groups.

Hyde countered that he has volunteered for numerous nonprofits throughout the city and wanted to help broker compromises between residents and nightlife denizens. His appointment is a win for the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, on whose board he sits and had vigorously supported his bid for the seat.

New sheriff contender picks up gay backer Joining former police union head Chris Cunnie at City Hall Monday, July 18 as he pulled papers to run for San Francisco Sheriff was openly gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener. The endorsement of Cunnie, a former undersheriff who left following the death of his 20-year-old son last fall, is due to their having known each other “a long time,” said Wiener.

“I have enormous respect for him as a leader and member of law enforcement,” Wiener told the B.A.R. With the state transferring nonviolent offenders back to county jails, Wiener said Cunnie was the candidate best qualified to oversee the transition.

“He is someone who has so much experience that he will be able to hit the ground running,” he said.

Cunnie’s entrance into the race throws a wrench into the campaigns of District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, whose frontrunner status is now in doubt, and Sheriff’s Captain Paul Miyamoto, who is backed by the sheriff’s deputy union and Dufty.

It further complicates the bid by openly gay former sheriff’s deputy Jon Gray, who has struggled to gain attention in the race and backing from LGBT officials. Gray had been trying to secure support from both Wiener and Dufty.

New York flag unlikely to fly over Castro As the B.A.R. reported on its blog Monday, July 18, openly gay New York state Senator Tom Duane (D) has sent an official Empire State flag he purchased to be flown over the Castro this weekend.

Local gay blogger Michael Petrelis, who is friends with Duane, asked him to send the flag so San Francisco’s LGBT community could honor New York lawmakers’ legalizing same-sex marriage. The first gay nuptials are set to take place Sunday, July 24.

The Castro merchant group that oversees the flagpole at Harvey Milk Plaza agreed to fly the New York State flag below the over-sized Rainbow Flag. But it then reversed course, saying it was technically not possible.

As of press time Wednesday it seemed unlikely that the East Coast flag would be unfurled at all. Petrelis said plans to raise the flag from Milk’s home state had been scrapped due to the inability for community organizers and the Merchants of Upper Market and Castro to resolve the issue.▼

BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

<< Community News

July 21-27, 2011

▼

Karel still shouting at windmills

by Ed Walsh

S

ay what you want about Karel, but he may be the hardest working person in radio today.

The very openly gay talk show host, entertainer, and columnist Charles Karel Bouley, who goes simply by Karel, is on the air seven days a week on seven stations. He returned to the Bay Area’s KGO radio (AM 810) on the 7 to 10 p.m. weekend lineup in March after being fired from the station three years ago. Karel will perform standup this Monday, July 25, at the Rrazz Room in the Hotel Nikko and he is out with a new book this month.

Karel, 49, has touched a chord with many listeners who relate to his struggles in a bad economy, which Karel characterizes as a depression.

In 2008, when he swore during a news break at a time when his mic should have been turned off, KGO fired him. And as a result of what he inadvertently said on air, he was also suspended from his gig writing for the Huffington Post and he lost his job as KNX’s entertainment reporter. He went from making $100,000-plus annually to an unemployment check.

Karel battled back since being fired three years ago. First, getting work at Energy 92.7, and later Green 960. Today he’s on a half-dozen stations around the country and locally on KGO. He has had to do most of it himself, patching together a network of radio stations, being his own producer, and for a time had to act as his own call screener.

When KGO offered him his job back in February, he considered it a “vindication” but he explained that is was a difficult choice to leave Green 960, where he was steadily building an audience. It ultimately came down to time and economics.

As part of a barter system, Green 960 and his other affiliated stations got the show for free but he was entitled to profit from several commercials each hour that he sold himself.

With some of the ads on Green 960 going for as little as $10, the need to support himself led him to return to KGO. As part of the deal, KGO wouldn’t allow him to work for both stations.

Karel’s show oftentimes gets very personal and he sometimes discusses his own struggles trying to keep a roof over his head. He recently told listeners about having to euthanize his sick and aging dog, Angel, because he couldn’t afford the vet bills to keep the pet alive any longer.

“It’s been an interesting two-anda-half, three years to say the least,” Karel told the Bay Area Reporter last week.

His book, Shouting at Windmills, includes a very personal article written by Orange County/Long Beach Blade writer David S. Etheridge.

“I lay it all out there,” Karel told the B.A.R., “all kinds of things. I thought, look, I am going through all these things just like America is.

I lost my job at the same time every body else did. I was waiting for that unemployment check that they [Congress] were holding hostage at Christmas. It made me a better host but at the same time it’s been rough.”

Shouting at Windmills is a collection of columns published on Huffington Post chronicling, as his sub-headline explains, “BS from Bush to Obama.” It includes his personal struggles as well as the column he wrote on the night he was fired.

That piece was about the political figure “Joe the Plumber” (Joe Wurzelbacher), who endeared himself to

Courtesy KGO

Radio host and columnist Charles Karel Bouley, known simply as “Karel” has strong opinions on LGBTs and conservatives.

the John McCain presidential campaign after he asked a critical question of candidate Barack Obama at a 2008 campaign stop.

Wurzelbacher was very much on Karel’s mind the night KGO fired him. In the column entitled “RIP Joe the Plumber,” Karel wrote: “It’s time for Joe the Plumber to be put to rest. Not him, personally, but the entire myth of what he represents, because Bush and his policies have all but destroyed the middle class and any hope of anything but severe struggling or extreme success as the two economic options has vanished.”

That column never made it to the Huffington Post because of the words he said on KGO that got him fired. During a break when the engineer should have muted his mic, Karel could be heard commenting on a news story about Joe the Plumber. He said, “Fuck goddamn Joe the God Damn Motherfucking Plumber! I want motherfucking Joe the Plumber dead!” Karel apologized for the outburst, noting that of course, he didn’t mean it literally. Undoubtedly worried about an FCC fine, KGO fired him.

The national attention over his rant resulted in death threats.

Someone even tossed a plumber’s wrench through his window.

Making history Karel first made LGBT history in 1998 when he and his late husband, Andrew Howard, became the first gay couple to host a talk show on a major market station, Los Angeles’ KFI. Sadly, Howard died of a heart attack in 2001 at the age of 34. The couple had been together over 11 years. Howard was HIV-positive when they met. Karel, who is HIVnegative, believes HIV drugs may have ultimately cost Howard his life.

“Seems protease inhibitors raise the cholesterol levels in those who take them and doctors must add in statin drugs. We know that now, because of people like my late husband,” Karel wrote.

Karel sued Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and the attending physician for wrongful death, alleging medical malpractice. He was eventually allowed to sue under AB 25 and AB 205 even though those domestic partnership laws were not in effect when Howard died. Karel’s lawsuit paved the way for other same-sex couples to sue retroactively under those newly enacted laws.

Karel eventually settled the lawsuit in arbitration for a figure that he is not allowed to disclose, but he noted that it was less than half of his $200,000 legal costs. The radio host said he felt vindicated because the ruling that allowed

him to proceed with the suit helped advance LGBT rights.

He noted that he has received virtually no support or recognition from the bulk of the LGBT media and from gay organizations including the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation.

“And I’m sorry if I don’t fit the mold of the ‘good gay,’” Karel told the B.A.R. “I’m sorry. I am a little overweight. I am outspoken. I have a lisp. I am sorry if I don’t fit into their mold of what a good gay man should be. Oh, well. I have made more inroads in the past 15 years in my endeavors than these community leaders ever will.”

GLAAD did not respond to e-mails and calls for comment by press time.

Equal opportunity offender Despite being one of the most visible and vocal figures in the LGBT community, Karel has not shied away from criticizing the community when he felt it was warranted.

Among his more controversial stands, he once supported an AIDS quarantine, has said that with few exceptions, most who contract HIV now “deserve it,” and that bears are “gay men who have given up.”

He has questioned the usefulness of LGBT community centers and wonders why anyone could be proud just for being gay.

“I watched the gay community get cut in half,” Karel said. “Right in front of me. It was a holocaust in the 1980s. It was a terrible holocaust that we lived through. Well, I didn’t live through that to get to this point and not be critical of the community when it needs [to be criticized.]”

In addressing his remarks about the gay community and HIV, Karel has some tough love to dispense to gay men and the need for safe sex.

“When I say you deserve it, what I really mean is that you need to take responsibility for yourself.

You need to not blame anybody or anything for what has happened to you. You are in control of your body and your life. Not anybody else.

Not Trojan. Not anybody,” he said, referring to a maker of condoms.

“You are responsible for your own life. So that’s what I really mean. I don’t mean they deserve it and we shouldn’t care and ‘screw them.’

Forget that. I put in my time. I have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that I care for people with HIV and AIDS.” Karel also has said that he agrees with Republican former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee that in the early days of AIDS, the first patients with the disease should have been quarantined to prevent the explosion of cases that were seen in the 1980s.

“In the early days of HIV, we should have shut down the bathhouses. It’s not your Godgiven right to pay $20 and have sex all night long when there is a sexually transmitted disease making the rounds, so we should have shut down the bathhouses and quarantined, but that ship sailed,” Karel told the B.A.R. Of LGBT community centers, Karel said that in his personal experience, with his large circle of gay and lesbian friends, he doesn’t know anyone who has used an LGBT center.

“It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s just that I want them to be what they can be. I want them to be that bridge between the gay and the nongay community,” he said. “I want them to be the resource center for See page 14 >>

▼

Community News>>

July 21-27, 2011 •

BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

SF agency oversees AIDS funding, faces hurdle

by Seth Hemmelgarn

T

he San Francisco Redevelopment Agency is working to survive after Governor Jerry Brown called for such entities to be dissolved unless they contribute specific amounts to local school and special districts.

Locally, the redevelopment organization is the lead administrator of the federal Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS program.

Officials expressed confidence the redevelopment agency will survive, but the prospect of elimination concerns some people.

Chris Harris is the HOPWA administrator for the San Francisco agency. She said the city’s HOPWA funding isn’t in danger.

“HOPWA’s a federal source, so the city’s entitled to those funds regardless of who administers it,” Harris said. “The city’s entitled to the funds and the AIDS community will not be losing HOPWA even if the administrator changes at some point.”

She added, “We’re not expecting or planning on that to happen.”

If the agency were eliminated, Harris said, a successor entity would be named.

For fiscal year 2011-12, the agency’s HOPWA funds – which cover Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties – are $9.8 million. The portion going to San Francisco is $8.6 million.

Among other activities, the organization’s HOPWA effort funds two tenant-based rental assistance programs for people living with HIV/ AIDS, funding a cumulative $53 million over the years.

The HOPWA Rental Assistance program provides up to 280 tenantbased subsidies for people living with AIDS. The redevelopment agency contracts with the San Francisco Housing Authority and Catholic Charities Catholic Youth Organization to implement this program, in which tenants pay 30 percent of their income for rent.

The HOPWA subsidy covers the remainder.

The Partial Rent program provides a flat subsidy of $250 to $400 a month to tenants trying to return to the workforce or pursue job-related training. This program, which Catholic Charities CYO administers, serves up to 105 tenants.

Stacia Scherich, who’s 45 and was diagnosed with AIDS in 1995, said she’s “very worried” about possible impacts to HOPWA, in part because housing is “such a crucial part of staying stable” on HIV medications.

She said she wouldn’t be able to afford her studio apartment if it weren’t for the HOPWA funds.

“I’m able to live in a nice neighborhood out here by the beach,” Scherich said. If it weren’t for HOPWA covering “a good portion” of her rent, which is approximately $950 a month, she said she’d have to live in a single-room occupancy hotel downtown.

“Those places are a nightmare,” she said.

Redevelopment officials remain concerned about the future of the agency.

“If you look at the big picture here, and all the work that redevelopment does, and HOPWA being a big part of it, I’m worried. ... I feel we have a responsibility to make sure our residents are getting the services they need, the housing they need, the economic development that

ebar.com

Jane Philomen Cleland

HOPWA Administrator Chris Harris

happens with redevelopment, as well as the jobs that are created,” said out Redevelopment Commissioner Miguel Bustos.

Officials are hoping the Board of Supervisors will pass an ordinance that would allow the redevelopment

agency to survive.

James Morales, general counsel for the redevelopment agency, said the ordinance would commit San Francisco to make payments to the school district and other local bodies.

If the city made that commitment, the state Legislature would allow the redevelopment agency to continue, he said.

Morales estimated the city would need to provide $20 million to $25 million the first year. He said the figure would be “under $5 million and maybe substantially less than that” in subsequent years.

He said there’s a “high likelihood” the Board of Supervisors would pass the ordinance, which won’t be introduced at the board until August.

The agency’s work in affordable housing and other areas “have wide popular support,” he said.

In a July 13 letter to HOPWA contractors, Harris wrote that the agency couldn’t enter any new commitments or contractual obligations until the city adopts the ordinance. She indicated that needs to happen by October 1.▼

www.ebar.com

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

July 21-27, 2011

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 21-27, 2011 •

BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

<< The Sports Page

July 21-27, 2011

▼

Aw, keep your shirt on

by Roger Brigham

B

asketball superstar Sheryl Swoopes, celebrated in the LGBT community in 2005 for coming out, quietly becomes engaged to a man this year and the world has a collective WTF moment. Former NFL player Michael Irvin takes his top off to appear on the cover of Out magazine to speak out in support of gay rights and talk about his deceased gay brother while detailing the excessive measures he always took to make sure folks knew that there was no way in hell he was gay.

(Or, as Jerry Seinfeld might say, not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

As the stories filtered through the blogosphere last week, I could not help but think of how both illustrated the contradictory pressures in sports, especially at the highest levels, both to conform and to be an individual. Just how do you

follow your own drummer without breaking ranks?

Although she was the center of media attention when she came out nearly six years ago, for Swoopes, coming out was not a political statement but a personal reality. “I’m a firm believer,” Swoopes told ESPN at the time, “that when you fall in love with somebody, you can’t control that. Whether it’s another woman.

Whether it’s another man.

Whatever.”

“Whatever” currently is a man, a fact buried deep in an ESPN story

by Mechelle Voepel on Swoopes return to the league at the age of 40 on a Tulsa Shock team mired with injuries and a losing record, but visible before that by a visit to her Facebook page. In the ESPN article she credits her fiance, Chris Unclesho, with helping her find her way back to the WNBA. “If Chris and I had not gotten together, I’m not sure I’d be playing

today,” she told ESPN. “I know he has a lot to do with where I am in my life now. There is nothing I’ve been through in my life that I regret, or that I would go back and change. I feel like everything that happened – personally and professionally – I went through for a reason, and I learned from those things.”

Autostraddle.com offered perhaps the most cogent comment on Swoopes’s revised status, saying it’s about the courage, not the labels: “In 2011, maybe we’re ready to see this as a story about being honest about everyone you love and have loved, being honest about the weird and indescribable ways love works inside you by refusing to really try to describe them at all. For a culture as obsessed with labels as ours is, that’s truly brave and transgressive. And for anyone else who doesn’t feel like they were born into a label, Swoopes may now be a real role model – the question is whether everyone else will be able to accept those terms, or whether ‘not so gay anymore’ is the story we’re going to stick with.”

Speaking of labels, hopefully no mailing sticker on your copy of Out obscured any part of Irvin’s anatomy you longed to see. I’m guessing when the magazine posed him in shoulder pads and low slung jeans, it was an attempt to capture what every homophobic jock’s fear is of how gay athletes see them in the locker room.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

But seriously: what kind of mixed messaging are we being offered up with Irvin’s story and photo spread?

Remember how Magic Johnson was quick to reassure Arsenio Hall that he was 100 percent heterosexual after he became infected with HIV and the big audience cheer he got? Flash forward and we have Irvin telling us that while he was very protective and proud of his gay brother, he overcompensated

Chris Unclesho and WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes are engaged.

by excessively womanizing, lest anyone think he was gay. In so doing he exposes the pressure he felt to fit a gender label and cater to it at the same time. Quite deftly, too.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

So, why exactly is Irvin posed as though he is in the early scene of a soft gay porn flick? Same reason Sports Illustrated runs an annual issue of women in swimsuits. Same reason why most of the bar ads you see in gay publications show guys with their shirts off. Working on the psychological principle that men are, essentially, pigs, publishers like to offer eye candy to entice readers. Go ahead: tell folks you’re just getting it for the articles.

And no harm in that in a wink, wink, nod, nod kind of way. But here’s the thing: if you consider the one unifying issue in the modern LGBT world is the fight against sexual repression, don’t we owe it to ourselves to show a bit more creativity in our editorial selections?

Need every photo be there because it caters to a stereotype or fantasy or because it is so easy? Can we not strive for more diversity of gender expression and race? Can we not have pictures of how people are in real life and work, not as they are in fantasy personal ads?

Case in point. One of my favorite sites to check out regularly is www. outsports.com, which has a rich array of blogs, does a great job of monitoring the news, and has provided an indispensable public service by providing a venue for countless athletes to come out and connect.

But the most refreshing and remarkable thing about seeing a picture of Swoopes leading Outsports’ home page last week is that it was a picture of an African American woman. Think that’s not

rare? Well, on the photo gallery index page, there were 48 pictures last week, showing approximately 94 people.

Correction: 94 men. No women. And only three African Americans.

I pause a moment now as every friend I have in the media protests the very legitimate and practical reasons they have for making the choices they make. Reflect what people want, others do it so we have to, etc. etc.

Okay, done? My turn.

I have sat in daily newspaper editorial meetings and criticized the choices those papers make. I recall telling editors I didn’t understand why every story about travel agencies we had quoted men when the vast majority of travel agency employees I ever knew were women, or why only male doctors were quoted in stories about breast implants. Was a real pain in the ass about it, but I kept getting asked back and gradually they changed.

When I was in Anchorage and in charge of a daily sports section, I made a rule that we would match coverage of local men’s sports on the front page with coverage of women’s sports there as well. Story for story. That was in the early 1980s and nobody else was doing it. I took a lot of second-guessing for it, but the paper stuck with me and we built up a loyal following for women’s sports. We created an audience and awareness.

Which, quite frankly, we could use more of in the LGBT African American community. And that means more pictures of African Americans, whether they are L, G, B, or T. And speaking of folks defying labels, here’s a hooray for out Olympian Diana Nyad. At the age of 61 she is attempting the treacherous and unprecedented swim from Cuba to Florida. Way to defy expectations and limitations. You go, girl!▼

Jane Philomen Cleland

Subtle AIDS awareness night

T

he San Francisco Giants, which became the first professional sports team to have an AIDS awareness night back in 1994, commemorated the event subtly at the 18th annual Until There’s A Cure game Monday, July 18 at AT&T Park. Above, Cody Ross, wearing the familiar

red ribbon, scored a run in the Giants’ 5-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

But starting pitcher Ryan Vogelsong did not wear the ribbon during the game. And the pre-game ceremonies, organized by the Until There’s A Cure Foundation, did not have the usual group of

volunteers forming a red ribbon on the field. An official with the foundation said the organization wanted to “do something different” this year. A Giants spokeswoman said the ribbon was sewn into a jersey that Vogelsong does not wear when he is pitching.

▼

Obituaries >>

July 21-27, 2011 •

BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

UCSF doctor mourned by colleagues

by Cynthia Laird

C

olleagues are mourning the death of openly gay UCSF psychiatrist Dr. Kevin Allen Mack, who was killed July 14 in an accident involving a university shuttle bus and a big-rig that occurred on Octavia Boulevard at Oak Street.

Dr. Mack, who was 52, was ejected from the shuttle bus and pronounced dead at the scene. Three other passengers were injured.

San Francisco police continue to investigate the 6:20 a.m. incident, a spokesman said Tuesday.

According to San Francisco Department of Public Health officials, Dr. Mack was a member of the Department of Psychiatry, based at San Francisco General Hospital and an expert in bipolar and psychotic disorders. He was the director of

Educational Technology and Faculty Development at the UCSF-Berkeley Joint Medical Program, and advisory college mentor, and had been a member of the Academy of Medical Educators since 2008.

Dr. Dan Karasic, also a psychiatrist, was a colleague of Dr. Mack’s and remembered him fondly. Karasic had received an email from Dr. Mack the night before the accident.

“It was on transgender care,” Karasic said.

Karasic said that Dr. Mack was well known to students and residents.

“I think he had psychiatric emergency services that morning,” Karasic said of why Dr. Mack was on the early shuttle bus to SFGH. The men had known each other for about 11 years, Karasic said. Dr. Mack came to UCSF in 2000.

“People are so devastated because

Dr. Kevin Allen Mack

he was somebody – he was a brilliant guy and had a very kind and gentle soul,” Karasic recalled. “I think people really connected with him.”

Dr. Mack was very focused on medical education and case-based learning as opposed to traditional lectures, Karasic said. He also worked with the underserved mentally ill.

Dr. Mack received his doctorate of medicine from the Hawaii School of Medicine and completed his psychiatric residency at Harvard University.

On the UCSF School of Medicine website entry for Dr. Mack, he wrote that he was basically an educator at heart “who chose medicine as a career after deciding that gay teachers weren’t going to be ‘safe’ professionally for several decades.”

An associate clinical professor of psychiatry, Dr. Mack indicated

that his interests include “neural networks as they function in the service of human learning and memory, with a specific focus on medical education.”

Karasic said that Dr. Mack would be missed.

“It was an unfair loss. He was the epitome of what we try to be here, a psychiatrist working with poor people and the severely mentally ill,” Karasic said.

Dr. Mack is survived by his husband, Naoki, who he met 20 years ago in Hawaii, and by their two young children, Chiaki, 7, and Nobu, 4. A funeral Mass was held Wednesday, July 20 at St. Agnes.

In lieu of flowers, donations to benefit his husband and children may be made to the Kevin Mack, MD Memorial Fund through Wells Fargo Bank.▼

San Francisco Columbarium begins expansion

by Eric Lindroos

D

eath is inevitable, but where you are laid to rest is not. Now, San Franciscans have one more option of where their remains may be kept for all eternity. The Neptune Society of Northern California held a groundbreaking ceremony at the historic San Francisco Columbarium July 19 announcing the expansion of three new halls, offering thousands of niches for inurnment.

New exterior gardens are also part of the project.

“This is a really important event, because it allows people to be inurned in San Francisco rather than having to go outside the city,” senior prearrangement executive Kelly Milberger said.

With beautiful Neo-Classical architecture, magnificent stained glass windows, lush gardens, and

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Tenderloin Health From page 1

progress every day to getting where we need to be,” he said.

San Francisco Public Health Director Barbara Garcia expressed confidence in Tenderloin Health’s ability to survive and said Fernandez “has worked extremely hard at bringing the organization to structural strength.”

“David came in to a pretty weak organization,” she said, but he’s “done a pretty good job in bringing it back to an accountable organization.”

Past troubles Tenderloin Health was created in July 2006 when the Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center and Continuum HIV Day Services officially merged.

The move was a response to the realities of reduced AIDS-related funding.

That same month, then-Executive Director Tracy Brown suffered a heart attack. Chiquita Tuttle, who had been the interim director of Continuum, remained to handle daily operations.

Brown stepped down in October 2008, and Tuttle led the agency on an interim basis.

In May 2009, Colm Hegarty became Tenderloin Health’s new executive director. Hegarty is the partner of Bay Area Reporter general manager Michael Yamashita.

Around that time, a contract Tenderloin Health had with the city’s Human Services Agency was defunded. That resulted in the shutdown of the nonprofit’s community drop-in resource center, which had served over 12,000 unduplicated clients every year.

Brown didn’t respond to an interview request sent through

mosaic tiled floors; the Columbarium offers a stunning ambiance for loved ones to be remembered. Sitting on almost a full acre, the property offers a memorial to multiple famous names such as Harvey Milk, Chet Helms, George Ainslie, and many others.

“I come here walking because I know that the garden is a beautiful, peaceful, unique place, that helps us memorialize our loved ones,” said District 1 Supervisor Eric Mar. Another rare aspect of the Columbarium is that it is the only non-denominational burial place in San Francisco with space available.

The niches inside highlight the variations of race, sexual orientation, gender, and religious beliefs.

“All people grieve in different ways, it is fascinating to see the diversity in this building,” said state Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco).

With a plethora of character and diversity inside the Columbarium, it is only befitting that there is an equal amount of personality outside.

Employed with the Neptune Society of Northern California for 24 years,

Emmitt Watson is responsible for taking care of the grounds and maintenance. While Watson was originally hired to clean and paint, his infectious persona has become a staple of the Columbarium.

Facebook. Hegarty declined an interview request.

Tuttle said that when she was at the agency, they had worked on issues such as billing and expenses.

“We were doing our stewardship,” she said.

Forms the agency filed with the IRS show its net assets declined from about $1.1 million for 2005 to negative $182,951 for 2009.

Tenderloin Health board Chair Andy Chen said in an interview that the drop in net assets from 2005 was ultimately a function of the agency bringing in less money.

“The economic environment has affected contributions from the full range of donors that we’ve historically depended on, and that’s consistent with most all nonprofits,” he said. “By and large, we haven’t really lost a large percentage of contracts.”

An audit of the agency’s financial statements as of June 30, 2009 also pointed to problems. The B.A.R. obtained the document through a public records request to the health department after Fernandez declined to provide a copy. The audit, performed by PMB Helin Donovan and dated December 2010, is the most recent available for the agency.

The review indicated poor financial oversight was among the reasons for the agency’s troubles. The audit found material weaknesses in several areas.

A material weakness was defined as a deficiency or combination of deficiencies in internal control “such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the entity’s financial statements will not be prevented, or detected and corrected on a timely basis.”

According to the review, Tenderloin Health attributed many

of its problems to staff shortages and management turnover during 2009 and 2010.

The audit listed problems including reconciliations of multiple financial statements accounts such as accounts receivable and accounts payable weren’t properly prepared at year-end.

Possible consequences mentioned in the review included the risk that timely financial statements wouldn’t be available to funding sources and others when requested.

“This might have adverse effects on the organization’s operations and financial condition,” the audit said.

Among other recommendations, PMB Helin Donovan suggested that the agency adopt new procedures.

The audit indicated that Tenderloin Health was working to address problems.

In an interview, Fernandez said that when he first joined Tenderloin Health, he was given the title interim executive director for 90 days.

“My job was to come back to [the board of directors] and tell them whether we should close the doors or not,” he said.

He said he ultimately found no reason to do that. For one reason, he said, “The population we serve can get these services nowhere else,” especially not all in one place.

Fernandez said that part of the problem when he joined the agency was that “We just weren’t on top of billing,” and there was a backlog. He said chief financial officer Stefanie Yurus, whom he brought in, has been “looking at processes and procedures in every aspect of the agency.”

Sandra Miniutti, vice president, marketing and chief financial officer of Charity Navigator, said in an email

to the B.A.R. that she and others at the charity rating company reviewed Tenderloin Health’s 990 tax forms and “nothing really jumps out” to them in terms of the nonprofit’s financial performance.

“However,” she said, “please note that this charity functions a bit differently than the charities we rate because Tenderloin [Health] is mainly funded by government grants as opposed to donations.”

Tenderloin Health client Michael Hampton, 56, said he’s worried about government budget cuts and said he’s a “booster” for the agency, which has been “a tremendous support” for him through groups and other services.

State Senator Leland Yee, fifth from left, joins other dignitaries in the ceremonial groundbreaking for the expansion at the San Francisco Columbarium.

Jane Philomen Cleland

Debt Fernandez couldn’t say what the agency’s total debt is because the nonprofit hasn’t finalized all its financial data.

Tenderloin Health has a $500,000 line of credit from Wells Fargo and a $200,000 line of credit from Bank of the West, he said. The agency has used $600,000 of the combined amount.

It has a 15-year term for paying off Wells Fargo, and the agency will have seven years to pay Bank of the West, he said.

In addition to what it owes banks, it has about $1.2 million in accounts payable, which “technically” is more short-term debt, Fernandez said.

That number varies greatly depending on income and other factors, he said.

Fernandez said that figure “seems like a sizable number, but for the size of our budget, it’s not.” In a June interview, he said he thought the agency’s budget was about $7.1 million.

Watson provides tours and stories to the many visitors, is known on a first name basis by most, and takes absolute pride in all he does.

“I hate sadness and take joy in putting a smile on people’s face and in their heart,” Watson said. “This is my life now, it gives me joy.”

The completion of the first hall is expected to be ready next spring, with the second and third halls following shortly after. Named the Hall of Olympians, the rooms will be named after an Olympian in Greek mythology. The niches have not been reserved or sold yet, but prices for the niches will range from $995 to $25,000.

“The $25,000 niches can hold up to six urns and have much more space,” family service counselor Michele Carondelet said. “The $995 spaces are communal niches with multiple urns inside.” ▼

He said this week that Tenderloin Health is “pretty close” to breaking even. He didn’t have the most recent financial data but said, “We’re covering our expenses.”

Fernandez also said the net negative assets of about $183,000 reflects “a point in time” and that figure should be better by now.

In a June interview, Fernandez had been reluctant to discuss many financial details. The B.A.R. was not able to obtain the agency’s most recent board meeting minutes.

Work with the city Fernandez didn’t discuss details about his agency’s contracts with the city. Records indicate in the last fiscal year it received well over $500,000 from the health department alone.

He would only speak generally about the agency’s fundraising plans.

However, he said the agency is “on track to bring in a totally different donor base, in addition to what Tenderloin Health has had in the past.

We’re going after private money,” because that allows more flexibility than government funds.

Garcia, the city’s health director, expressed strong support of agencies diversifying their funding sources.

She also discussed what Tenderloin Health owes to her department.

She said the agency didn’t pay the department for some dental and primary care services. The problems stemmed from before Fernandez joined Tenderloin Health.

Around the time when the nonprofit wasn’t “managing the books” and had trouble paying the health department and other vendors, health officials did “a deep review” of the agency, she said. That See page 17 >>

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

<< National News

July 21-27, 2011

▼

Baldwin one step closer to Senate run

by Lisa Keen

H

er campaign stationary reads “Tammy Baldwin 2012.” But the text of the July 13 press release walks the House of Representatives’ only openly lesbian member one step closer to an historic bid for a Senate seat: “She is a likely candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin).”

That statement echoed a comment she made to the Capital Times newspaper in Madison July 2: “I think I am likely to run.”

If she does enter the race, Baldwin will become the first out lesbian to make a run for the Senate. (Ed Flanagan was the first openly gay person to run, losing to incumbent Senator Jim Jeffords in Vermont in 2000.) And clearly, Baldwin’s supporters are urging a bid.

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Karel From page 8

gays that are in trouble, or for gays who need help or need guidance.

I want them to be relevant in the community. That’s all. I don’t want them to be on the fringe. ... I don’t

According to the press release, Baldwin raised more than $435,000 in June, a month after the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund reported sources close to Baldwin as saying she was eyeing the seat.

Kohl announced May 13 that he would retire, rather than seek re-election in 2012. Newspapers in Wisconsin immediately began identifying a list of potential candidates that included Baldwin.

Others mentioned, on the Democratic side, include former Senator Russ Feingold (D), who lost his re-election bid only last year to newcomer Republican Ron Johnson.

Feingold would be considered the Democrats’ strongest candidate because of his name recognition and longtime service in the Senate. A Public Policy Polling survey in May of 784 likely Democratic primary voters in Wisconsin found 70 percent want them to go away. I just want them to be better.”

As for bears, Karel told the B.A.R., “In part, I see bears as gay men who have given up. They don’t want to personally groom nor do they want to lose weight. It’s not healthy to weigh 400 pounds. It’s not healthy

Rick Gerharter

Representative Tammy Baldwin is one step closer to running for Senate.

to weigh 500 pounds. It’s just not.

It’s not healthy to live a life of cigars and alcohol and obesity. That is not a healthy lifestyle,” he said. “And neither is being a circuit queen where you are in the gym six hours a day and you are drinking Red Bull and vodka and you’re doing

supported Feingold for the seat; Baldwin came in second with 12 percent. Six other Democrats earned between one and five percent each.

Feingold from “Remove consideration,” said a Public Policy Polling press release May 27, “and the race becomes considerably more wide open, but Baldwin would start out with 30 percent ...” Her closest Democratic competitors, according to the survey, would be former Representative Dr. Steve Kagen with 17 percent and current Representative Ron Kind with 16 percent.

Capital Times executive editor Paul Fanlund said, in a July 5 article, that Baldwin is “steaming toward a 2012 candidacy” for the Senate seat and “it almost seems the only person who could alter her course is former Senator Russ Feingold. ...”

Feingold has said he would make

an announcement of his intentions in September. But he urged other Democrats considering a bid to go ahead with their plans and not wait for his decision.

Baldwin told the Capital Times she thinks she would have to raise between $15 million and $20 million for a Senate race.

Her July 13 press release indicates that her July 15 quarterly report to the Federal Elections Commission shows she has raised $502,485 for the second quarter of the 2011-2012 election cycle. For the same second quarter in the previous election cycle (2009-2010), she reported raising $107,533.

For the July 15 quarterly report in 2009, she had $561,563 cash on hand in her campaign coffers. Her press release this month says she has $1.1 million.▼

crystal meth. It’s cute that there is a subculture of people, the wonderful self-accepting people that they are, it’s nice that there is that subculture that they can feel comfortable in but I don’t want anyone to feel too comfortable in a destructive lifestyle. ... I love bears. It’s not a disapproval

thing. I am just interested in the health of my community.”

During a news break on his KGO show after San Francisco’s Pride Parade last month, Karel questioned why it is even called “pride” since being gay itself is nothing to be proud of. But he explained that he is very proud of the accomplishments of gay heroes including Harvey Milk and others.

During a 90-minute interview with the B.A.R. last week, Karel talked with the same unrelenting passion that has made him a success on the radio. He said the hardest part of his job was not selling ads or his administrative duties but hearing about things politicians on the right and left do that upset him.

“It’s a lot of work being me but I don’t know what else to be,” he said.▼ For a sampling of Karel’s Rrazz Room show and to buy tickets to Monday’s performance, or to buy his book, visit, www.radiokrl.com.

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Guest Opinion From page 4

mediators and attorneys, we have worked with many couples who wished they had those conversations and revelations before they married, rather than after.

This moment in history is embedded in a broad and complex historical web of social justice and liberation movements formed and fueled by discussing many difficult questions. Despite the current hype, marriage equality – while perhaps a significant campaign victory – was not the ultimate goal of these movements. In the big picture, we want much more than marriage equality can offer. And, right now, in your particular and specific life, you may actually want less. We owe it to ourselves and our movements to enter these state-sanctioned relationships mindfully: educate yourselves as to what marriage really means, and thoughtfully consider if this is what makes sense for you. The conversations will be worthwhile, no matter the outcomes. ▼ Heba Nimr (www.hebanimr. com), Dylan Miles (www.milesfamilylaw.com), and Charles Spiegel (www.charlesspiegellaw. com) are attorney-mediators who practice in the Bay Area.

On Monday, July 25, from 7 to 9 p.m., the authors will facilitate a workshop, “Pre-Nup is Not a Dirty Word.” The workshop is free, although donations are accepted.

It takes place at the LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street in San Francisco. To RSVP, email mcle@balif.org.

Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 21-27, 2011 •

BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

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Mental health center From page 2

“We are really happy and proud of the work that we’ve done toward creating an organization that is compact and streamlined and being able to offer a lot of services without a huge overhead,” said Rodgers.

AHP is still adjusting from its usual intake, which averaged up to eight new referrals weekly, but is now averaging up to potentially 15 new referrals weekly, said director

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Ballot battle From page 1

The bill, Senate Bill 48, was signed

by Governor Jerry Brown last week.

It was authored by out state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco).

But no sooner had Brown signed the bill than Paulo Sibaja, communications director for a conservative family advocacy group in California, sent a letter to state Attorney General Kamala Harris.

The letter asks the attorney general to prepare a title and summary for a referendum to repeal Senate Bill 48.

The bill, also known as the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act, remedies a deficiency in previously existing law that required that public school curricula in the social sciences acknowledge the contributions of various specific minorities, such as African Americans, American Indians, and Asian Americans.

The FAIR Act simply adds LGBT people as a specific minority and prohibits instruction or any school activity “that promotes a

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<< Community News

July 21-27, 2011

DOMA From page 1

official with the mammoth Focus on Family group. The witness, Thomas Minnery, had claimed a federal study found that children raised by an opposite-sex married couple are happier and healthier than children raised by other families.

“I checked the study out,” said Franken, referring to a 2010 report published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “It doesn’t say what you said it does.” The hearing room erupted in laughter. “It says ‘nuclear family,’ not opposite-sex married families, are associated with those outcomes.”

Minnery said he understood “nuclear family” to mean heterosexual.

“It doesn’t,” said Franken, bluntly.

“It says ‘two parents who are married to one another and are the adopted or biological’ parents of their children. I don’t know how we can trust the rest of your testimony if you are reading studies these ways.”

▼

Lori Thoemmes. The increased referrals came with only a slight increase in funding, Thoemmes said.

Michelanne Baker, who brought New Leaf ’s acclaimed training program to AHP as a temporary clinical psychologist, joined the staff permanently in April. She is now a co-coordinator of the clinical training program at the agency and aiding the process of merging AHP and New Leaf ’s training programs into one, said Baker and Thoemmes.

Interns from Baker’s program are already finding a new home at Queer LifeSpace, said Baker and Heilner.

Providing training opportunities for newly minted LGBT therapists who came to San Francisco to get handson LGBT specific psychotherapy training was another goal of the collective, Heilner said, anticipating that Queer LifeSpace will house a comprehensive training program for LGBTQ therapists by September 2012.

Baker praised her former New

Leaf colleagues who founded Queer LifeSpace and SF Therapy Collective, and welcomed the new nonprofit counseling organization.

“I’m very excited ... it’s a nice addition to what’s being offered,” she said about the low-fee private pay services, which provided mental health services for uninsured and ineligible city health care patients, once a component of New Leaf ’s services.

“I’m hopeful that it will provide a niche for people who don’t

have other places to go for LGBT affirming psychotherapy services,” added Baker.▼

discriminatory bias on the basis of sexual orientation.”

SB 48 was approved by the state Senate on a 23-14 vote in April and approved by the Assembly on a 4925 vote on July 6. Brown signed the bill July 14.

Under California law, opponents of a law have 90 days from the enactment of a bill to request a title and summary of a referendum from the state attorney general, circulate petitions, and gather 504,760 valid signatures.

SaveCalifornia.com, a webbased organization opposed to the law, sent out an “Urgent Alert,” suggesting parents remove their children from public schools. The website warns that the law “means children as young as kindergarten in California K-12 government schools will be forced to admire ‘gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans’ as their personal role models.” The group suggests parents put their children into church schools or school them at home.

Equality California also sent out an “Urgent” alert from Executive

Director Roland Palencia. In it, Palencia said it is “not surprising” that paperwork has been submitted to attempt to undo the law.

But Palencia also mentioned the fact that EQCA will need financial resources to combat any campaign.

“We can’t take a ‘wait and see’ approach,” Palencia stated. “If our opponents do qualify for the ballot, we must prepare now to fight back – and win in the public arena.”

Palencia said opponents of the bill wasted no time in mischaracterizing it, claiming the FAIR Act will “molest the minds of impressionable youth” and turn all textbooks and instructional materials into “prohomosexual promotion tools.”

Leno said that the organization behind the referendum is “extremist.”

“This is an extremist group – the far right of the California Republican Party, which represents 30 percent of voters,” Leno told the Bay Area Reporter Monday.

However, Leno said it’s important for the community and allies to remain vigilant.

“We had heard some whispers last week” about a possible referendum, he added. “It comes with the territory.”

Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said the law is important.

“Our opposition fears information and knowledge more than anything else, to them a mind is a terrible thing to open, once students approach LGBT issues with an open mind, those students can never be duped,” Kendell said in an email to the B.A.R. “Once kids learn the facts about the contributions and existence of LGBT people throughout history those kids will not blindly accept the lies and distortions fed to them by those who oppose equality and justice for our community.”

Leno noted the importance of the bill and cited one of the current Republican presidential candidates, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who “accepts that gay and lesbian people are satanic.”

Bachmann’s husband, Marcus, a

therapist, “takes taxpayer dollars” and runs discredited reparative therapy, or “pray away the gay,” Leno added, referring to multiple media reports over the last week about Marcus Bachmann’s clinic and Truth Wins Out’s undercover video.

“They are the fact that we need this more than ever,” Leno said of the FAIR Act. In his letter to the attorney general, Sibaja identifies himself only as the “proponent” of the ballot measure and includes no mention of his affiliation with the Capital Resource Institute, a nonprofit group that advocates conservative positions on family issues. A profile of Sibaja on a California Republican website, www.redcounty.com, indicates he has worked as a substitute teacher in San Bernardino County, volunteered for Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and John McCain, and is a member of various conservative Republican groups.▼

Assessing DOMA’s impact

“18,000 are in my state.”

Susan Murray, an attorney who helped usher in Vermont’s landmark civil union law and who represents numerous same-sex couples, said many people simply did not understand what a civil union was.

And she said she has found that many corporations believe DOMA prevents them from providing equal benefits to their employees.

“Companies think the law allows them to discriminate,” said Murray, who is gay and has been with her spouse for more than 25 years.

She explained that civil unions, while groundbreaking when Vermont approved them in 2000, are not easily understood.

Vermont enacted marriage equality legislation in 2009.

“Marriage is universal,” she said in response to a question from Leahy. “Everybody understands it.”

Andrew Sorbo, 64, a retired history teacher in Catholic schools in Connecticut, talked about “always having to use the pronoun ‘I’” in his classroom.

“I could not say ‘we are going on vacation,’ because the next question would be ‘Who is the other person?’” noted Sorbo, “and would lead to lots of other problems.”

“DOMA,” he said, “is an insult to our dignity and our sense of equality.” He said he was “appalled and baffled” by those in Congress who oppose same-sex marriage and “can’t understand how they are the philosophical descendants of those who defended slavery, who defended the laws against mixed race couples, and who defended the laws that allowed the separate but equal statutes that Representative Lewis spoke of.”

year, Attorney General Eric Holder said that he and Obama believe DOMA is unconstitutional and that laws disfavoring LGBT people should have to pass the strictest form of judicial scrutiny.

Lewis seemed to have been referring to Obama when, in his remarks, he chastised those who are “comfortable sitting on the sidelines.”

“As elected officials we’re called to lead, to be a headlight, not a taillight,” he said.

Grassley was the only Republican senator to comment and ask questions during the hearing, saying – at times with the vigor of a preacher – that DOMA is “not an expression of dislike for gay and lesbian people.” He and other opponents of the bill pointed out that many of the Democrats on the committee – including Leahy and Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Charles Schumer of New York – voted for DOMA in 1996. The fact that they voted for DOMA, said Ed Whelan of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, “refutes the empty revisionist claim that DOMA embodies an irrational bigotry against same-sex couples.”

Durbin acknowledged his 1996 vote, but said he is now a cosponsor of the repeal bill. Feinstein voted against DOMA in 1996, as did California’s other Democratic senator, Barbara Boxer.

Whelan said it is “a profound confusion to believe that the values of federalism somehow require the federal government to defer to or incorporate the marriage laws of the various states in determining what marriage means in the provision of federal benefits.”

Whelan also said that repealing DOMA would “have the federal government validate” same-sex marriage and “require taxpayers to subsidize the provisions of benefits.” And, he said, repealing DOMA would “pave the way” for polygamists and other polyamorous unions to be recognized under federal law.

The hearing was covered live by C-SPAN and will be rebroadcast from time to time.▼

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) opened the hearing by saying he called it to “assess the impact” of the law on American families. He said the 1996 law “goes well beyond the harm to a family’s dignity,” harming it economically, health-wise, and in other ways.

Several of Leahy’s seven witnesses provided personal, often dramatic, stories to illustrate those harms.

Ron Wallen, a 77-year-old man from Indio, California, said his life was thrown into “financial chaos” after his husband of 58 years died after a long illness. Because he was not eligible to receive his same-sex spouse’s Social Security benefits and pension, said Wallen, his household income dropped from $3,050 per month to $900 per month. The couple had married in California in 2008, when it was legal to do so.

Feinstein pointed out that there are an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 same-sex couples who are married in the U.S. Of those, she added,

www.ebar.com

Obama on board The mainstream media gave some attention this week to a statement Tuesday by White House press secretary Jay Carney, during his briefing, that President Barack Obama supports the Respect for Marriage Act. Carney, in response to a question, said Obama “has long called for a legislative repeal” of DOMA. “He is proud to support the Respect for Marriage Act ... which would take DOMA off the books once and for all,” said Carney.

Numerous LGBT organizations issued news releases applauding the statement from Carney that the president supports the Respect of Marriage Act. They consider Obama’s support for the repeal measure specifically to be a significant step forward in his position.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, a spokesman for Obama said he had supported the repeal of DOMA – both sections – since 2004. But after he became president, his Department of Justice initially mounted a vigorous defense of the law in courts, arguing, among other things, “DOMA does not discriminate against homosexuals in the provision of federal benefits.”

After considerable outrage from the LGBT community, the DOJ softened its arguments in court briefs. And then, in a dramatic announcement in February of this

To schedule an appointment, call the intake line at (415) 358-2000, ext. 302. To receive an invitation to Queer LifeSpace’s opening party, contact Stacy Rodgers at (415) 358-2000, ext. 321 or srodgers@sftherapycollective. org. For more information, visit www.queerlifespace.com or www.sftherapycollective.org.

Cynthia Laird contributed to this report.

▼ <<

Community News >>

Tenderloin Health

From page 13

resulted in a payment plan.

Garcia, who was the health department’s deputy director at the time of those troubles, said she went to two Tenderloin Health board meetings three or four years ago “to talk about their responsibilities as a board, and make sure they understood if I started pulling out their dollars, they were going to have a hard time surviving.”

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HIV prevention From page 1

reductions in HIV rates.

“We want to make San Francisco the first city to eliminate new HIV infections,” Dr. Grant Colfax, the city’s HIV prevention director, said at a forum last month detailing the new focus.

The changes have been under way since Colfax took over the health department’s HIV Prevention Section in 2007. But it wasn’t until now that he has been able to reshape the budgetary process, which is re-examined every five years.

Through the funding allocations Colfax is ushering in a new direction for how the city, and the communitybased agencies it funds, approach reducing the spread of HIV. Some agencies are facing a drop in funding, while those granted contracts are being warned they will face greater oversight to ensure they are meeting agreed upon goals.

With contract negotiations still being finalized, Colfax has yet to release specifics about the agencies being funded and what services they will be providing. He has discussed the changes in broader terms.

A higher focus is being given to testing people regularly and offering treatment sooner to people who are HIV-positive in an attempt to further reduce new infections in San Francisco.

“How do you link people to care? It is hard. It is not going to be easy, but we have to do it,” said Colfax.

More attention is also being paid to the overall HIV viral load in the community, as new research has shown reducing viral load counts helps bring down new HIV infections.

With many gay and bisexual men practicing sero-sorting, where they either seek out sexual partners of the same HIV sero-status or tailor their sexual behavior and condom usage based on their sexual partner’s HIV status, seeing that viral loads in HIV-positive people are at undetectable levels can help to halt HIV transmission.

“If people are not going to use a condom your HIV risk is still low because of community viral load suppression,” said Colfax.

With San Francisco’s HIV rates stalled at endemic levels, meaning new infections have remained steady for the last 11 years, Colfax has argued the city’s world-renowned system of HIV care it has relied on since the beginning days of the AIDS crisis 30 years ago is no longer viable.

“Unless we change what we do, we are not going to eliminate new infections because we are in an endemic,” said Colfax.

Tension But the HIV Prevention Section’s shifting priorities have caused concern among HIV/AIDS providers who have doubts about de-emphasizing health education and risk reduction for an increased emphasis on testing.

“There has been a lot of tension around this because things are changing,” said Colfax.

One of the most vocal agencies critiquing the changes has been the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center. It contends that the needs of the city’s API community are “being completely overlooked” as greater attention is being given to gay and

Fernandez estimated the agency owes the health department $280,000 to $290,000. That figure had been about $600,000.

Garcia said Tenderloin Health is still paying down what it owes the department. The department reduced Tenderloin Health’s funding on a monthly basis. The agency’s been “in good standing,” she said.

She also said the nonprofit provides “an important service in the Tenderloin,” and that’s “a community we certainly are committed to.”

bisexual men of other ethnicities, injection drug users, and transgender women.

“This is just bad public health policy,” stated Mike Rabanal, the center’s board chair. “The choices San Francisco makes have the power to shift national HIV policy. If we fail to address the public health needs of the significant API population locally, we’re sending a message that the impact of the epidemic in our communities doesn’t matter.”

Openly gay Supervisor Scott Wiener, whose District 8 has some of the city’s highest concentrations of HIV-positive residents, said he is aware of the criticisms some groups have raised about the new funding decisions.

At the same time, Wiener also expressed confidence in the direction Colfax is advocating the city needs to head.

“I know that changes have been made and I have spoken to Grant about those changes. I think very highly of Grant, he does amazing work and has a really strong vision,” said Wiener. “But I also am open to voices in the community from people working in HIV prevention services.”

San Francisco health researchers estimate that there are 736 new HIV infections each year in the city, though the number could be as low as 621.

A decade ago, there were more than 1,000 new infections a year.

The city’s goal is to reduce new HIV infections by 50 percent by 2017.

Objectives include cutting new HIV infections among gay and bisexual men and eliminating new infections among injection drug users.

At a discussion about the impending changes during the HIV Prevention Planning Council meeting Thursday, July 14, Tracey Packer, deputy director of the HIV Prevention Section, acknowledged the section “hadn’t been as open and clear” as it needed to be in explaining its new approach.

Agency officials, however, are limited in what they can say until the request for proposal process is completed, said Packer. In most cases, she said the programs would start September 1.

The process has gone on for two or three years, she noted, adding that, “for the first time, it seems like we might really see a big reduction in new infections.”

In her presentation, Packer said that expected outcomes include 75 percent of gay and bi men, injection drug users, and transgender women who have sex with men in San Francisco would know their HIV status. Among other outcomes, 85 percent of HIV-positive people would have suppressed viral loads.

Officials have worked to establish targets, said Packer, “that are easy to measure,” such as the number of tests that have been given.

Objectives for community-based testing include having prevention section office-supported programs conduct a total of 30,000 HIV tests annually by 2013.

Agencies in negotiations with the city in this area are the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which oversees Magnet, working with subcontractors St. James Infirmary and Glide Memorial United Methodist Church; UCSF AIDS Health Project, collaborating with subcontractor Stop AIDS Project; and the health

July 21-27, 2011 •

Health Commission President Steven Tierney said he hasn’t spoken directly with Tenderloin Health officials lately, but said, “They have a wonderful history.” He said Brown had been “enormously effective at building community partnerships” and applying for grants. “When he left, that all seems to have disappeared,” he said.

Tierney indicated the Health Commission would be willing to help, and the Tenderloin “desperately” needs services.▼

department’s STD Prevention and Control unit.

In the health education and risk reduction to address drivers area, objectives include 90 percent of clients who are HIV-negative or don’t know their status will be offered an HIV test. That figure applies to people who participate in prevention officesupported programs. Drivers include methamphetamine and alcohol use, and multiple sex partners.

Agencies included in this category include Instituto Familiar de la Raza, with subcontractors Mission Neighborhood Health Center and SFAF; Tenderloin Health; and SFAF’s Stonewall Project.

HPPC member Jackson Bowman said Packer’s presentation reflected “a big departure” from what’s previously been done.

“The deliverables are unbelievable,” Bowman said.

While he appreciated a challenge, Bowman nonetheless said he was concerned about the emphasis on what he and others call the “test and treat” model.

The new focus is “really medicalized,” he said, and puts people in a position where “all we’re trying to do is meet our numbers.”

Bowman expressed concern about women and young people being left out.

He said the plan is “as full of as many problems as it’s been before.”

Council member Desmond Miller, who works at Larkin Street Youth Services, also appeared worried about young people.

“The youth we serve, they’re not going to go to Magnet,” the gay men’s health center in the Castro neighborhood, he said.

Packer acknowledged there’s more emphasis on testing, but said agencies can be creative in how they include people.

She also indicated the department would work with its contractors to be successful.

“Nobody’s going to fail,” she said.

Packer also defended increased emphasis on testing. She noted there are people who don’t know their status, and “we can’t let that happen.”

Council member Denmark Diaz, a community member, said he didn’t see how the prevention office “is going to be able to serve populations who are not prioritized,” such as women, youth, and Native Americans.

Packer said that officials would work to address gaps but noted the department’s funds are limited, and they have less money to work with than they used to.

She also said the council “made a decision we are going to prioritize our funding” for groups such as men who have sex with men and intravenous drug users. That is what the plan does, she said.

“I feel the tension in the room about who these programs are reaching” and who’s not going to be reached, said Packer. But she added that reducing infections in the highest priority groups also helps to improve data for everyone else.

Packer said the agency would continue meeting with providers to discuss service gaps and other issues.

A community meeting is set for Monday, August 1, at the city’s LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street. As of press time the meeting time had yet to be announced.▼

BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

Legal Notices>> NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : SHAPY INTERNATIONAL INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 298 11TH St., San Francisco, CA 94103. Type of license applied for:

48- ON-SALE GENERAL PUBLIC PREMISES JUL 21, 2011 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : CHSP TRS UNION SQUARE LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 550 Geary St., San Francisco, CA 94102. Type of license applied for:

47- ON-SALE GENERAL EATING PLACE JUL 21, 2011 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : DAEBAK ENTERPRISE CORPORATION. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 900 Bush St., San Francisco, CA 94109-8714.

Type of license applied for:

41- ON-SALE BEER AND WINEEATING PLACE JUL 21, 2011 NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR CHANGE IN OWNERSHIP OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE LICENSE To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : FIVE STAR SF LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1548 California St., San Francisco, CA 94109-4708.

Type of license applied for:

48- ON-SALE GENERAL PUBLIC PREMISES JUL 21, 2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033651900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PENGUINS ON HENRY,45 Henry St.,#1,San Francisco, CA 94114. This business is conducted by state or local registered domestic partners, signed David Geoffrey Stafford.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 06/27/11.

JUN 30,JUL 7,14,21, 2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033630000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as NUKA, 1345 Bush St., San Francisco, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, signed Jean-Luc Kayigire.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/10/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/15/11.

JUN 30,JUL 7,14,21, 2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033640400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CAFE BUNN MI, 417 Clement St.,San Francisco, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a corporation, signed Peter Lee.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 06/21/11.

JUN 30,JUL 7,14,21, 2011 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are WHOLE FOODS MARKET CALIFORNIA INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 3950 24th St., San Francisco, CA 94114-3704.

Type of license applied for:

21- OFF-SALE GENERAL JUL 14,21,28 2011 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are PEARLS DELUXE BURGERS LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1001 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94103-1605. Type of license applied for:

41- ON-SALE BEER AND WINE – EATING PLACE JUL 14,21,28 2011 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are BURGER URGE LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1599 Haight St., San Francisco, CA 94117-2912. Type of license applied for:

41- ON-SALE BEER AND WINE – EATING PLACE JUL 14,21,28 2011

STATEMENT FILE A-033653600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as BROTHER CONSTRUCTION, 1485 Bayshore Blvd.,#128,San Francisco, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, signed John H.A. Lee.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/28/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/28/11.

JUL 7,14,21,28, 2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033657400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as MUDPUPPY’S, 536 Castro St.,San Francisco, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, signed Daniel Bergerac.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 6/29/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/29/11.

JUL 7,14,21,28, 2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033662400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as Q-CUTS, 4035 18TH St.,San Francisco, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a general partnership, signed Thomas Karabin.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/11.

JUL 7,14,21,28, 2011 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 701 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103-3138. Type of license applied for:

64- SPECIAL ON-SALE GENERAL THEATER JUL 21,28,AUG 4, 2011 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are : YAC & AT CORP. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 71 Stevenson Street, Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1849 Union St., San Francisco, CA 94123-4307. Type of license applied for:

41- ON-SALE BEER AND WINEEATING PLACE JUL 21,28,AUG 4, 2011 STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE# CNC-11-547882 In the matter of the application of JEAN PIERRE MICHAUD for change of name. The application of JEAN PIERRE MICHAUD for change of name having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that JEAN PIERRE MICHAUD filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to JOHN PETER GAUDINO Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 218 on the 15th of September, 2011 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUL 14,21,28,AUG 4, 2011 STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE# CNC-11-547865 In the matter of the application of KALLIE ANN LEWIS for change of name and gender. The application of KALLIE ANN LEWIS for change of name and gender having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that KALLIE ANN LEWIS filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to KALEB WESLEY LEWIS and his/her gender be changed from female to male. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 218 on the 8th of September, 2011 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUL 14,21,28,AUG 4, 2011 STATEMENT FILE A-033654000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as STUDIO GALLI PRODUCTIONS, 5173 Diamond Heights Blvd., #119,San Francisco, CA 94131.

This business is conducted by an individual, signed Andrew J. Galli.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 06/28/11.

JUL 14,21,28,AUG 4, 2011 STATEMENT FILE A-0336615000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as THIRD PYRAMID, 531 Duboce St., San Francisco, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Thomas D. Hubbard.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 06/30/11.

JUL 14,21,28,AUG 4, 2011

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statement file A-033668800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as FASHION POND, 125 Camden Drive, #10D,San Francisco, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Vered Ozarov.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/05/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/05/11.

jul 14,21,28,AUG 4, 2011 statement file A-033671100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE HAPPY COLLECTIVE,158A Yukon St.,San Francisco, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Myke E. Reilly.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/06/11.

jul 14,21,28,AUG 4, 2011 statement file A-033661000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as KING DRYWALL, 275 5th St.,Suite 409,San Francisco, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Gary King.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/30/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/30/11.

jul 14,21,28,AUG 4, 2011 statement file A-033661100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CONSTRUCTION CONSULTING UNLTD.,INC.,275 5th St.,Suite 409,San Francisco, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, signed Renee A. Clark.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/30/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/30/11.

jul 14,21,28,AUG 4, 2011 statement file A-033672400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CHAO TIAN ANTIQUES & FINE ARTS, 1503 Pershing Drive, Apt. B, San Francisco, CA 94129.

This business is conducted by an individual, signed Shun Chao Deng.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/06/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/06/11.

jul 14,21,28,AUG 4, 2011 statement file A-033679700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ANIMEZINGWORLD, 530 Francisco St.,Unit 418,San Francisco, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a general partnership, signed Edward Young.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/08/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/08/11.

jul 14,21,28,AUG 4, 2011 statement file A-033681300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as WEN XING BILINGUAL FAMILY DAY CARE, 1153 Goettingen St.,San Francisco, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Bi Xian Zhu.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/14/10. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/11.

jul 14,21,28,AUG 4, 2011 statement file A-033679300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as H & A COMPUTER SERVICES,870 Market St.,Suite 1056, San Francisco, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Serge Ulyanov.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/08/11.

jul 14,21,28,AUG 4, 2011 statement file A-033679800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as MELA TANDOORI KITCHEN, 536 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a general partnership, signed Sohel Subedar.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 07/08/11.

jul 14,21,28,AUG 4, 2011 statement file A-033676500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as LATKER DESIGN SOLUTIONS,80 Uranus Terrace,San Francisco, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Craig Latker.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/13/02. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/07/11.

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In the matter of the application of ANTHONY JOSEPH NEAL for change of name. The application of ANTHONY JOSEPH NEAL for change of name having been filed in Court, and it appearing from said application that ANTHONY JOSEPH NEAL filed an application proposing that his/her name be changed to TONY QUINTERO Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 218 on the 8th of September, 2011 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

jul 21,28,aug 4,11, 2011 statement file A-033683600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as GRAND CENTRAL FURNITURE,353 9TH St., San Francisco, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Jhovani Manzanares.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/21/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/11.

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jul 21,28,aug 4,11, 2011 statement file A-033690700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ENCYCLOMEDIA OUTPUT GRAPHIC DESIGN STUDIO, 1504 Bryant St., Suite 101,San Francisco, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, signed Timothy M. Cheng.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 07/14/11.

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jul 21,28,aug 4,11, 2011 statement file A-033685400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as 1.PATTIWAGON, 2.PATTICAKES, 121 Kensington Way, San Francisco, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Patricia Doyle.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 07/12/11.

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jul 21,28,aug 4,11, 2011 statement file A-033689500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE FITNESS RESOURCES, 722 Larkin St.,#6,San Francisco, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Kenneth Scott.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/13/11.

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jul 21,28,aug 4,11, 2011 statement file A-033644300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ALEX FITNESS, 2275 Market St.,Suite #4, San Francisco, CA 94114. This business is conducted by limited liability company, signed Alexander Shula.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/22/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/23/11.

jul 21,28,aug 4,11, 2011 statement file A-033698600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as DAR AL FIKER LP, 1116 Polk St., San Francisco, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an limited partnership, signed Adris Algohem.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 07/19/11.

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jul 21,28,aug 4,11, 2011 statement file A-033691900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as WILLI’S WILD FLOWERS,2469 27th Ave.,San Francisco, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, signed Julie Martin.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/15/111. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/15/11.

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Vol. 41 • No. 29 • July 21-27, 2011

www.ebar.com/arts

Gay stories from the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

From Eytan Fox’s Mary Lou. Courtesy SFJFF

by David Lamble

T

he 31st edition of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival presents new work from master Israeli queer filmmakers Tomer Heymann and Eytan Fox; a Kirk Douglas tribute featuring an early Holocaustthemed feature, The Juggler; a special Castro Theatre screening of Spartacus (July 24), at which time Douglas will accept the SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award in recognition of his fight against the Hollywood blacklist; a comedy-night screening of Jews in Toons, with episodes from TV’s Family Guy, South Park and The Simpsons; and a seven-film spotlight on the fate of Jews in modern Poland. The

SFJFF plays the Castro Theatre, July 21-28; Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, July 30-31; Roda Theatre at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, July 30-Aug. 6; Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, Aug. 1-7; and Rafael Film Center, Aug. 6-8.

Mary Lou What begins as a candy-colored sugar rush, with a precocious 10-year-old boy embracing his beautiful if emotionally fragile mom’s love for the music of 70s Israeli pop star Svika Pick, turns dark and moody as that boy becomes a young man desperate to fabricate a soothing myth to explain Mom’s abrupt disappearance to follow her dream. Following a bizarre high school musical humiliation, Meir (the talented young hoofer Ido Rosenberg)

Going Dutch ‘Dutch and Flemish Masterworks’ at the Legion of Honor

by Sura Wood

runs off to Tel Aviv to join a family of drag performers while experiencing the whiplash and heartache of an assortment of failed stabs at love. From Eytan Fox, the acclaimed director of Walk on Water, The Bubble and Yossi & Jagger, this flashy but solidly grounded survey of modern Israeli gay life reveals the price a talented young drag star must pay to turn his mom’s delusions into the basis for a satisfying grownup queer life. (Castro, 7/24) The Queen Has No Crown In queer Israeli documentary-maker Tomer Heymann’s deeply felt body of work, he proves his ability to turn strangers into family. It Kind of Scares Me is about his coming out to the orphan scamps he’s mentoring in a Tel Aviv boys

club. Paper Dolls is an unusually sensitive examination of the close if perplexing bonds that develop between Israeli seniors and the Filipino transsexuals imported to care for them.

Queen Has No Crown is an impossibly intimate stew of home movies from Heymann’s feisty real biological clan, which at one Passover dinner consists of a divorced mom and dad, five grown sons, three daughters-inlaw and six grandkids.

Tomer favors extreme close-ups, especially of two of the most important men in his life, both named Erez: his moody twin brother and his rather good-natured 23-year-old See page 37 >>

“Portrait of Aelfje Uylenburgh”

by Rembrandt van Rijn, part of the show Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection at the Palace of the Legion of Honor.

U

nlike the recent banquets of European art that have been attended by hype and promotion, Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection, a comparatively modest exhibition at the Palace of the Legion of Honor, hums rather than shouts. Salomon de Bray and Jan Lievens may not have the name recognition or cachet of Picasso, who lived large, or the mystique and bohemian, expat chic of Gertrude Stein and family, but the works of these 17th-century Dutch artists are gorgeously crafted elements of a gem-like show that’s satisfying but doesn’t overwhelm – it’s a little like those meals at elegant gourmet restaurants where they don’t serve heaping portions, but every ingredient and flavor on the plate is primo.

The exhibition features 70 select paintings by 60-some artists, each of whom is represented at the top of their game. What distinguishes this collection is the pristine condition and exceptional quality of the works whose absence of wear and tear makes it difficult to believe they were painted 400 years ago. Centuries later, one can discern the subtle, expert manipulation of paint on smooth, refined surfaces. It’s worth pausing at this juncture to See page 37 >>

{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS }

Rick Gerharter

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

<< Out There

July 21-27, 2011

▼

Queer summer books quiz

by Roberto Friedman

T

bartabsf.com

he Bay Area Reporter arts desk receives many more review copies of newly published books than we have space to cover. We’re sorry we can’t get to them all. But we can at least tantalize you and steer you in the right direction by offering this 2nd annual Summer Books Quiz, in which we cite short passages from seven recently released books, and challenge you to identify the tomes they came from. Passages come first, followed by the list of books, then the answers in italics at the end of the column. Some of the books may be excerpted more than once. Ready?

Begin.

1. “We ended up at my favorite clothing store. AERO was located on Michigan Avenue. They carried the finest designers from all over the world, and they even had a spa, where I often went to get a facial, mani-pedi, and a massage.”

2. “We don’t need Dr. Freud to explain to us the meaning of a gun in the Western. The gun is a perfect excuse in many a Western for the two heroes to stare boldly at each other’s crotches.”

3. “Actually, her vices are few and chiefly include smoking two packs of cigarettes a day and a firm devotion to brandy depending on her mood. She tried smoking marijuana a couple of times, but claims she found it revolting. When it was the fashion in sophisticated circles to sniff cocaine, she sampled it once, but spilled her helping on the rug.”

4. “His dick was standing intimidatingly tall, like an angry scarecrow with an old war helmet draped atop its dome, stabbed into a field of overgrown vegetation.”

5. “’Homosexuality, by cutting the homosexual off from the bourgeoisie, enables him to see the blemishes of his class more sharply; it imposes a view of things more effectively than a political party does.’ – Andre Malreux, quoted by Jean-Louis Bory in Comment nous appelez-vous deja? (What Do You Call Us?).”

6. “I do not know if it was the urine therapy, as she said, or if it was her sweetness and strength, but her

skin had become more and more translucent over the years, and her face glowed with an inner light.”

7. “So, fittingly – the irony too much to take at such a young age – I lickety-split found myself standing in middle-right field wearing a skintight, bright-pink uniform that simply read ‘Mary Kay.’ I looked like a bloated flamingo.”

8. “When I turned back around, I was almost knocked off my feet. My briefcase flew out of my hand, banged to the ground, and belched all of my confidential papers into the air.”

9. “Ninety percent of men say their lover is also their best friend – which has got to be a big surprise to their wives.”

A. Brief Encounters – 69 Hot Gay Shorts, edited by Shane Allison (Cleis Press).

B. Lady of Burlesque: The Career of Gypsy Rose Lee, by Robert Strom (McFarland).

C. No One in the World, by E. Lynn Harris & RM Johnson (Simon & Schuster).

D. Miss Timmins’ School for Girls,

by Nayana Currimbhoy (Harper).

E. The Brokeback Book: From Story to Cultural Phenomenon, edited by William R. Handley (Univ. of Nebraska Press).

F. I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror, by Pierre Seel, translated

by Joachim Neugroschel (Basic Books).

G. It’s All Relative – Two Families, Three Dogs, 34 Holidays, and 50 Boxes of Wine (A Memoir), by Wade Rouse (Crown).

Pencils down! Answers can be found at the end of the column.

Gertrude for children Here’s the word of an LGBT Family Morning in Celebration of Stein from the Contemporary Jewish Museum in SF: “In honor of Gertrude Stein and her partner Alice B. Toklas, the CJM celebrates lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families with an allinclusive morning just for young children (preschool through 9 years old) and their families. Tour the exhibition Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories with special interactive activities, create mixed-media magnets, enjoy tea and pastries at the Stein Salon, and move to the groove with the music of Shira Kline and ShirLaLa.” Gertrude Stein for toddlers: Nappy is a nappy is a nappy. It all happens this Sunday, July 24, 9-11 a.m., at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission St., SF. More info is at info@thecjm.org or call (415) 6557800.

Back to Bach Last Friday night, Out There was in the house as American Bach Soloists launched their inaugural San Francisco Bach Festival, two weeks of performances, master classes, lectures, and public colloquia at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The bill of fare for the opening-night concert exulted in the timeless music of J.S. Bach: his Sonata in E minor for Violin and Basso continuo, his Suite VI in D Major for Unaccompanied Cello, his Sonata in G minor for Oboe and Harpsichord, and the Brandenburg Concerto V in D Major.

If the Brandenburg Concerto is an old friend that feels like it was conceived along with the Big Bang, it was fresh and exciting in the hands of these committed, exuberant musicians. Just goes to show that classical music is not stodgy or predictable.

ABS Artistic Director Jeffrey Thomas decided that it’s high

time that San Francisco had its own summer Bach Festival to go along with the venerable Carmel Bach Fest, and here it is. Highlights include Bach’s Mass in B minor and Handel’s Ariodante, a massive, three-hour operatic undertaking.

(Through July 23, info at www. americanbach.org.)

Mattachine society A message arrives from Hedwig and the Angry Inch creator John Cameron Mitchell: “Hey all, just thought you might want to know about the Mattachine Dance Party I’m DJing at El Rio on Sunday, July 31, from 3-8 p.m., along with PJ Deboy and Paul Dawson from Shortbus, and cabaret genius Amber Martin. We’ll have a mad crush of Classic Rock/Soul/New Wave/Country (all music is dance music!), and we hope you can come.

Only $5 at the door. See you there!”

(Mitchell told Portland’s Just Out: “It’s a Madonna-free and Gaga-free zone. We’ll even play LCD Soundsystem once in a while, but we avoid the cliches of gay bardom.”)

“And check out the amazing Amber Martin doing her kamikaze toy box of characters in Amber Alert the next night. She’s the love child of a three-way between Bette Midler, Tina Turner & Lily Tomlin. I’ll drop by to do a song or two with her at The Hypnodrone, 575 10th St., SF, at 10:30 p.m. Tix: $20 at the door; advance tix @Retro Vintage.”

‘Ring’ on radio If you missed the acclaimed San Francisco Opera production of Wagner’s Ring cycle this summer, all is not lost. Performances of Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung have been recorded for the San Francisco Opera International Radio Broadcast, available locally on Classical KDFC (90.3 in San Francisco, 89.9 in the North/ East Bay, 89.7 in Eureka, 92.5 in Lakeport/Ukiah) on the following dates: Das Rheingold (Sept. 4), Die Walkure (Oct. 2), Siegfried (Nov. 6) and Gotterdammerung (Dec. 4). The Ring operas will also be broadcast both nationally and internationally through the WFMT Radio Network. At this time, there are no immediate plans to release this new San Francisco Opera Ring cycle on DVD or to remount this production in the near future. So tune in.

Books Quiz Answers: 1. C; 2. E; 3.

B; 4. A; 5. F; 6. D; 7. G; 8. C; 9. E (citing Jay Leno).▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 21-27, 2011 •

BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

July 21-27, 2011

▼

Theatre >>

Night birds

by Richard Dodds

S

www.ebar.com

omething like a tragic version of The Fantasticks merged with a merry variation on Blood Brothers – the descriptors are flipped, if that point is unclear – the new musical Fly by Night is quirky and familiar, benevolent and sinister, sentimental and cynical. But most importantly, it is intelligent and enticing. Developed last year during TheatreWork’s New Works Festival, the musical is receiving its official world premiere as the opening production of the new season at TheatreWorks.

It’s a small-scale musical, but has been staged by Bill Fennelly with an imaginative flair at the Lucie Stern Theatre that captures the unpredictable tones of the script and score by Kim Rosenstock, Michael Mitnick and Will Connolly.

With a narrator (expertly played by Wade McCullum) whose efforts at striking an ominous tone occasionally desert him, the story takes place during the run up to the New York blackout of 1965 which, unlike the violence-marred 1977 rerun, is recalled in urban legend as a near-mystical experience and, in Fly by Night, as the culmination of fate unfolding its plans for several intersecting lives.

At the center of the story is Harold, who could be a close cousin of the nerdy dreamer Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors. There is no horror other than boredom and a grouchy boss in the sandwich shop where Harold toils while hoping for a break as a singer-songwriter. Ian Leonard plays Harold with such sad-sack veracity, while cutting an appealing character for the audience, that it takes us by surprise when he performs his first song at an open-mike night. His spoken introduction to the song, about

Photo by Mark Kitaoka

Ian Leonard, as a sandwich maker and aspiring songwriter, tries to woo the sister (Kristin Stokes) of his wife in the new musical Fly by Night at TheatreWorks.

how he identifies with Florida sea turtles confused by man-made alterations to the environment, seems like a setup for disaster. But the song “Circles in the Sand” is both beautiful and in character.

The score is, in fact, a consistently high-quality affair, finding a balance of pop sensibilities and solid theatricality. Most characters have at least one showcase number that reveals emotions that cannot be spoken. Harold’s recently widowed father (an exquisitely forlorn James Judy) sings in “Cecily Smith” of how he first connected with his beloved wife at a performance of La Traviata. Harold marries an aspiring actress (crisply played

by Rachel Spencer Hewitt) who sings of her ambitions in “Daphne Dreams.” Daphne’s simple but happy sister Miriam (a beguiling Kristin Stokes), who falls in love with Harold, finds her center in the sky as she sings about “Stars I Trust.”

Proving more flavor to this curious but savory stew are Michael

McCollum as Harold’s forever grousing boss, who rediscovers his calling when the lights go out, and Keith Pinto as a would-be playwright who lures Harold’s wife Daphne into his deluded project.

McCollum, the shaved-headed, goateed narrator, also does turns as Daphne and Miriam’s chipper Midwestern mother and a menacing Gypsy fortuneteller.

Musical director/keyboardist Michael Pettry leads a robust four-piece band from a platform incorporated into Dane Laffrey’s craftily utilitarian set. Fly by Night, the show and the production, display ample talent well invested.

There is one sour note that brings a melodramatic swerve that hasn’t been earned. But until then, Fly by Night is a new musical well worth a boarding pass.

Fly by Night will run at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto through Aug. 13. Tickets are $19 - $69.

Call (650) 463-1960 or go to www.theatreworks.org. ▼

DVD >>

California boys

by David Lamble

T

he Lost Coast is a new film on DVD that may prompt some curdled nostalgia for the good old days of Halloween blowouts in the Castro.

A couple of guys who know each other only because of their close ties to a third fellow embark on some rather cruel drunken banter at a party neither is enjoying.

“What’s the difference between a gay guy and a straight guy?”

“I give up.”

“Six beers. Does it bug you, everyone thinking that you’re gay?”

“Does it bug you that nobody likes you?”

“Zing! I’m glad I didn’t know you fuckers in high school, because that would have fucked me up good.”

“Tell me, how does it feel being Mark’s bitch?”

“Sorry, I forgot you were his original bitch, unless there’s some guy in junior high I don’t know about.”

“If anything, Mark was my bitch.”

“I heard that you did each other, which actually would mean that you were each other’s bitches, if you want to get into the semiology of being someone’s bitch.”

Gabriel Fleming’s debut feature makes good use of our town to

tell the story of four friends confronting desire, danger and heartbreak on a classic Halloween night in San Francisco. As the party in the Castro careens along Upper Market Street, Mark (the perky Lucas Alifano, who spends the entire film, in a bone-chilling climate, in Jockey shorts and a trenchcoat) confronts unresolved feelings for his straight-identified high school buddy, Jasper (Ian Scott McGregor).

Tagging along are a close female friend (Lindsay Bonner) and an

annoying bumpkin pal (Chris Yule).

The story is cleverly fframed in a long e-mail from JJasper to his out-of-town ggirlfriend. We learn the boys h had an unacknowledged b but painful encounter on a ccamping trip to the Northern C Californian coast. On a fogsshrouded night in search of aan elusive private party, the ffriends stumble through a gghostly Golden Gate Park, ttripping over a dead body and ttheir own conflicted feelings.

Nils Kenaston’s ccinematography provides an aacid trip-like appreciation fo for the great outdoors, both in the North Country and the p park.

Fleming has a short-story w writer’s eye for the telling d detail, turn of phrase and em embarrassing, caught-out m moments that enrich the kkind of tale normally only at attempted in a short film.

Leads Alifano and McGregor deftly revive their characters’ old pattern for relating, a schoolboy brand of roughhousing that was once an effective shield to disguise the degree of Mark’s desire and enable Jasper’s denial. In the end, one old friend stares out at the ocean, reflecting sadly, “We never kissed.”

Features include director and cast commentary, and deleted scenes with commentary. (Breaking Glass Pictures)▼

▼

Books >>

July 21-27, 2011 •

BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Making magic in the backlot

by Tavo Amador

I

t has been estimated that historically a fifth of all movies made in the United States were partially shot somewhere at MGM studios,” write Steven Bingen, Stephen X. Sylvester, and Michael Troyan in MGM: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot (Santa Monica Press, $34.95). That total is aweinspiring. What was it like to have worked there during the great age of the studio system (ca. 192560)? This superb combination of amazing photographs and brief essays answers that question and many others.

Although the story of the unlikely rise of MGM and its becoming the standard against which all other studios would be judged has been told before, never has that history been so lavishly illustrated with images of what the huge Culver City lots actually looked like. This city within a city – it had its own fire department, barber shop, power plant, post office, bank branches, trolley lines, garages, and lumber yard – was a true factory town.

Maps and overhead shots of Lot One show the location of 30 sound stages, the Writers’ Building (which long-time studio head Louis B. Mayer bragged had been built with profits from Joan Crawford’s movies), rehearsal halls, the carpenters’ shop, the scoring stage, blacksmith and foundry buildings, and the dressing rooms. These last consisted of Star Suites and General Dressing Rooms.

The former had kitchens, fireplaces, bedrooms, and private baths.

A picture of the directory shows the locations of those occupied by Crawford, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Jeannette MacDonald, Myrna Loy, and Luise Ranier.

Robert Taylor is photographed relaxing in his suite. His neighbors

were Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Nelson Eddy, William Powell, Robert Montgomery, and Lionel Barrymore. Major stars were driven to the soundstage for takes, then chauffeured back to their suites until needed again. The General Dressing Rooms, occupied by supporting players, those on the way up or on the way down, were linked by a long verandah and had shared bathrooms Publicity shots taken by artists like Clarence Bull and, especially, George Hurrell were photographed in yet another building, with a huge range of lighting and filters available to make the stars looks as glamorous as possible.

Lot One also had an amazing collection of Potemkin Villages: Manhattan was recreated with brownstones, Grand Central Station, and landmark skyscrapers. There was a small town; a French village, including a bridge over a stream; a Chinese village; jungles where Johnny Weismuller cavorted as Tarzan; lakes, boats, docks; an antebellum Southern mansion; European palaces and castles; and the huge swimming pool used by Esther Williams in her extravagant star vehicles. (Her underwater ballets were filmed in a separate indoor tank.)

Sometimes, however, those standing sets weren’t good enough.

For Romeo and Juliet (1936),

starring Shearer and Leslie Howard, openly gay director George Cukor recreated the palaces of Verona on a soundstage. For Shearer’s Marie Antoinette (1938), a replica of Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors was built.

The original wasn’t sufficiently grand, so the set was several feet longer.

The wardrobe building was where stars were fitted for their costumes, all of which were carefully stored. Leading actresses had dress dummies with precise measurements. After fittings, any gains in weight were reported to Mayer, who promptly ordered that the only meal the star could have at the fabled Commissary was chicken

soup, reportedly based on his mother’s recipe. (Judy Garland was frequently put on that diet.)

Furniture was built as needed and reused from one film to another, but most audiences didn’t realize it, because the stories were different.

Still another building housed the cameras, microphones, lights, and all the other technical equipment.

To comply with California laws, child performers like Garland, Mickey Rooney, Freddie Bartholomew, Jackie Cooper, Elizabeth Taylor, and Margaret O’Brien studied at the Little Red Schoolhouse, taking classes inbetween takes.

MGM was synonymous with musicals, and the complexities of filming them are apparent from studying the photographs and maps of the lot. Dances were choreographed and practiced in the Rehearsal Hall. Shooting took place on a soundstage. Songs were later sung at the Recording Studio and synched to match the completed footage. Otherwise, the performers’ heavy breathing would have been audible on screen.

Sadly, very little of the original backlot remains – most was sold to developers who built housing with streets named for the legends once under contract to MGM. The interest in classic Hollywood, however, remains intense. The recent auction of costumes collected by Debbie Reynolds – whose introduction to the book is insightful – brought huge sums, including $5.2 million for the white dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch (1955).

Thanks to MGM: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot, current and future generations will be able to imagine what it was like to be part of a glorious past. No doubt Leo the Lion is roaring his approval.▼

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

July 21-27, 2011

▼

Books >>

Back in the day

by Jim Piechota Remembrance of Things I Forgot,

by Bob Smith; Univ. of Wisconsin Press, $26.95 cloth, $14.95 e-book

G

ay comedian and writer Bob Smith’s 2009 debut novel Selfish and Perverse was a wonderfully written and authentically funny romantic comedy stuffed with handsome characters all trying to negotiate the conundrums of sex, love, and the temptations of the flesh. His book proved that the funny man was able to garner laughs and captivate audiences not only on stage, but on the page as well.

Smith’s follow-up Remembrance of Things I Forgot, an inventive, punchy sophomore effort about how the past can dramatically affect the present, is just as much of a winner as his debut.

This charming and humorous novel begins with a break-up and spins outward from there in a rush of brilliantly detailed scenery. It is 2006, and things are looking poorly for 20-year partners John Sherkston, a comic-book dealer, and physicist Taylor Esgard. It’s a difficult realization, but at least Taylor can be happy about the completion of his prized possession: a working time machine, one that transports John back to May 1986, when he and Taylor first met. It’s a time when

ebar.com

Molly Ringwald was emerging as a redheaded Hollywood sensation, Reagan misguided the country, and stonewashed jeans covered the liposuctioned asses of younger generations from coast to coast.

The time machine malfunctions when John’s panic-stricken attempt to return to the present day blows a

fuse. Accepting his fate, he begins a long and winding road trip (“Every American should drive crosscountry at least once,” Smith quips, “just to see all the amazing places you wouldn’t want to live,”) to alter the past by stepping in to prevent

the premature demises of both his sister Carol and his father, and in his most valiant attempt, while being chased by Dick Cheney, to interfere with George Bush’s presidential bid (if only).

All of this melodrama goes down smoothly in Smith’s capable, comically-seasoned, politicallyacerbic hands (he was the first openly gay comedian to appear on The Tonight Show, back in the 1980s).

There’s humor and p pathos intertwined here a younger versions of as b both John and Taylor r race against time t to understand that t the decisions they’d m made have lifelong r ramifi cations, and that “ “what could have been” i a long-gone and is u unchangeable tenet. In th final pages, however, the th author delivers a the n narrative kicker that o only cinematic highs school chronicler John H Hughes could’ve done ju justice to.

Smith’s characters a thankfully free of are th the stock stereotype m machinations found in blander gay fictions.

Instead they’re instantly likeable guys stuck in a rut. His story allows them to relive and reinvent a long lost but much-treasured era.

By extension, readers get to relive this period as well, one fantastically evoked by Smith, who is fast becoming a gay fiction favorite.▼

Music >>

Tale of two Elisabeths

by Jason Victor Serinus

E

MI has done its Elisabeths proud.

With its two Icon box sets, Elisabeth Schumann: Silver Thread of Song and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf: Perfect Prima Donna, the label has provided us with a virtually unbroken stream of great soprano interpretations of Mozart arias, German lieder (art song), operetta, and song from 1926-74. These bargain-priced sets may be a mixed blessing for folks who lack copies of texts and translations, but for those familiar with the more popular creations of Bach, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Wolf, both Strausses, and other greats, Schumann’s six packed CDs and Schwarzkopf’s 10 are a treasure trove.

Although neither woman held the monopoly on great lieder interpretation during her prime, Schumann (1888-1952) and Schwarzkopf (1915-2006) are certainly among the finest soprano representatives of the lieder tradition on record. All the more exciting to discover, in Schumann’s case, 17 tracks that EMI has never before transferred to CD. In fact, five priceless songs were only available once in the LP era, on a terrible Rococo transfer. As long as

you can forget everything you’ve ever learned about authentic earlymusic performance, Schumann’s interpretations of Monro’s “My lovely Celia,” Arne’s “Where the bee sucks” and Carey’s “Pastorale: Flocks are sporting” are sheer bliss.

The 17 tracks (including Schumann’s whistling) also underscore major differences between the two artists. Compare, for example, Schumann’s two excerpts (including “The Evening Prayer” duet) from Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel, recorded when she was 47, and Schwarzkopf ’s excerpts from the same opera, recorded when she was a fresher 32.

Schumann’s more slender voice is all joy, light, and smiles. Her instrument, shallow in the low See page 27 >>

▼

DVD>>

July 21-27, 2011 •

BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Bleak lives

by David-Elijah Nahmod The Fish Child (2009), 96 min., Spanish with subtitles (Wolfe Video) The Famous and the Dead (2010), 101 min., Portuguese with subtitles (Water Bearer Films)

S

uperb acting abounds in two highly unusual films from South America featuring characters whose lives we wouldn’t envy.

Lucia Puenzo wrote and directed The Fish Child based on her own novel. This intense drama begins in Buenos Aires, where wealthy teen Lala (Ines Efron) is in love with family maid La Guayi (Mariela Vitale). Together they plan on moving to Paraguay, where they believe they can lead a peaceful, happy life by a lake.

But everything goes horribly wrong when Lala’s father, an influential judge, forces himself on La Guayi. Soon, the Judge is murdered. Lala flees to Paraguay, where she hopes to rendezvous

with La Guayi. Instead, she meets La Guayi’s father, a washed-up soap opera actor with a few secrets of his own. Back in Buenos Aires, La Guayi is arrested and charged with a murder she probably didn’t commit.

The Fish Child offers an extremely complex tale in which several loose ends are left untied, yet the film remains a rich and rewarding viewing experience. Essentially a lesbian love-on-the-run crime thriller, it’s short on action and long on mood. The leads are two lost souls looking for their place in the world. Their love runs deep, and

<<

Tale of two Elisabeths From page 26

range and tangy in the middle, blossoms on high to produce miraculously pure, silvery sounds.

Equally important, her spirit seems truly innocent. You can almost imagine her a babe in the woods, voicing feelings without artifice as they naturally arise from the heart.

Yet the singing is paradoxically some of the most nuanced and subtly inflected on record. And in the “Evening Prayer” duet, an early example of double-tracking in which she sings both Hansel and Gretel, Schumann’s angelic purity is unparalleled.

Schwarzkopf, in freshest voice, is a very different animal. As irresistible as her unique sound and marvelous head voice may be, there is always the sense of an ever-active mind carefully choosing which of her huge cache of expressive sounds is most appropriate at any given moment. Dueting with Irmgard

the stars have enormous chemistry – you can feel their desperation.

The Paraguay sequence is dark and heartbreaking. In his long-deserted home, La Guayi’s Dad (Pep Munne), once a television heartthrob, is now an aging, broken man, filled with regret.

He accepts the revelation of his daughter’s relationship with Lala matter-of-factly, and reveals why La Guayi wants nothing to do with him. He also lets Lala know where she can find her beloved: in jail. The intensity of these scenes cuts like a knife. One of the more unusual lesbian love stories we’ve seen, The Fish Child is a stunning and unforgettable drama.

Esmir Filho’s The Famous and the Dead comes to us from Brazil.

This isn’t the glittering Brazil of Rio de Janeiro, but a part of the country that few of us have seen.

SSet in a small, nowhere to town in the country’s so south, Famous introduces u us to a 16-year-old Bob D Dylan fan who’s known o only by a blogger screenn name: Mr. Tambourine M Man. His Dad recently d died, and he lives with h his Mom, who appears to s struggling to hold onto h grip on sanity. her The boy’s life is e empty.

He’s struggling t identify himself. Shot to i a somewhat avantin g garde style featuring m metaphorical video clips o his computer screen on a well as flashbacks, as F Famous and the Dead is a haunting character study of a young man w who needs to get out of Dodge. Though he appears to enjoy hanging out and smoking pot with his best friend Diego, he’s aching on the inside.

He’s never going to fit in if he stays in this town. Towards the end of the film we find out why: he’s struggling with his sexuality.

Young Henrique Larre does a superb job of conveying the boy’s anguished desperation. He lives in a state of mind that many of us might recall from our younger years. Whether you live in a country village or in a major city, it’s never easy identifying your sexuality in a society that places rigid rules and restrictions upon you.▼

Seefried, her singing swings between supremely artful and calculatingly arch. This tendency only grew more pronounced as her relationship with her future husband, EMI recording producer Walter Legge, developed into one of rigorous, unrelenting repetition of notes and phrases, often for hours at a time, until she got it “right.”

Schwarzkopf ’s intellect and vocal apparatus made for some of the finest interpretations of German operetta, Richard Strauss’ Marschallin and Four Last Songs, and Mozart’s Countess. (Examples of all are included in her Icon box, in one version or another.)

Yet compare her recordings of Strauss’ “Freundliche Vision” and “Morgen” with Schumann’s, and it’s easy to understand why, when Strauss toured the United States accompanying and conducting Schumann in 1921, he once remarked, “One cannot sing more beautifully than that, no, one cannot sing more beautifully than that.”▼

www.ebar.com

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

<< Music

July 21-27, 2011

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Billy Budd & beyond: mixed Britten

by Tim Pfaff

I

n 1946, the year after Peter Grimes marked the arrival of one of the 20th century’s greatest composers, Glyndebourne, England’s boutique opera company, gave the premiere of Benjamin Britten’s second opera, The Rape of Lucretia, following it the next year with Albert Herring, Britten’s barely veiled gay coming-ofage story. Ever since, the British press – embattled long before now – has prattled on about the hit-and-miss relationship between Glyndebourne and the works of the greatest gay composer of the day, operas as indispensable and well-made as those of Mozart, on which Glyndebourne has built its reputation.

Two recent Britten releases on the Glyndebourne house label, DVDs of a Billy Budd from 2010 and CDs of The Turn of the Screw from 2007, record a colossal miss and a near hit.

To borrow a line from Aaron Sorkin, let the hacking begin.

Full disclosure: almost without

exception, the professional and lay music press has called this Billy Budd the greatest production of anything ever. Even its advocates admit they miss a keener sense of the sea in this most nautical of operas by the

composer who captured the surf, spray and salt better than any other before or since.

What I miss is anything that even resembles Billy Budd, Melville’s or Britten’s. This “heirloom” production,

as someone called it, attempts to capture the claustrophobic feel of a British man-of-war of 1797, but it comes off like just another jolly afternoon in Surrey. What’s missing is the homoeroticism – in all its Melvillian good and evil – that hangs so heavily over this opera. The charge should be nearly asphyxiating, but here it barely registers.

The singing is execrable, what singing there is, and in the pit Mark Elder, a conductor I admire, misses the unmistakable Britten idiom by a nautical mile. But the grievous problems are in the production of Michael Grandage, making a highly inauspicious opera debut. As but one example, the shipboard children, who should exemplify the ass-end of the trickle-down horror on HMS Indomitable, and shock in each of their two brief appearances, are merely insufferably cute, awaiting their curtain calls.

Here’s the thing. Billy Budd is, if not the only, the grandest all-male opera in the repertoire. But the costumes in designer Christopher Oram’s production, which surely hew to some historical model, disfigure the piece.

The cut of the fabric in the trousers makes every man in the cast look like he has a vagina. So there, right in front of our disbelieving eyes, are vaginas – in the big ensemble scenes, rows upon rows, tiers upon tiers of them.

So instead of Billy Budd, we get The Vagina Dialogues, minus Eve Ensler’s wit and rage.

We’re spared visuals at all in the 2007 Turn of the Screw, which is musically acute and fields a trifecta in Camilla Tilling’s Governess, Christopher Sladdin’s Miles, and Joanna Songi’s Flora. The children strike back, as they must in this superb adaptation of Henry James’ ghost story.

Conductor Edward Gardner leads the London Philharmonic, Glyndebourne’s pit band, in a highly nuanced performance that misses

nothing in Britten’s hypnotic, selfreferential score. At one point I swear I heard, for the fist time, the music motif for “Come along, kid,” the words of the friend of the novice who is scourged in Billy Budd, a haunting instant. Only the ghosts in this Screw disappoint, so the spine doesn’t quite, as it should, tingle.

The problem for all modern-day Britten interpreters is that Britten was, besides a great composer, a peerless musician, and he recorded his music with the best imaginable colleagues at the zenith of analog recording technology. Those recordings are unsurpassable, not that there haven’t been stunning Britten recordings since.

Gardner, this time conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, leads an exemplary new Britten release, a Chandos compendium that goes from his Sinfonietta, Op. 1, to his final vocal work, Phaedra, Op. 93, composed for Janet Baker. The stakes here are particularly high, since Baker’s Phaedra, conducted by Britten (playing the same harpsichord as the one on this new CD), is one of the greatest vocal recordings ever made. Even the one by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson paled in comparison.

Sarah Connolly slinks around the lines of this sex-drenched music, but generates far less heat than Baker with her pulverizing directness of utterance.

The must-have of the CD is the very early Two Portraits, composed in 1930 but never published during Britten’s lifetime. Perhaps predictably, the “portraits” are of his school chum, Dave Layton, and of E.B.B. (Edward Benjamin Britten). Gardner, with violist Maxim Rysanov in “E.B.B.,” makes a good case for them. But the high-point of the CD is Lachrymae, Britten’s “reflections” on a John Dowland song first composed in 1950 and reworked for viola (Rysanov extraordinary here) and string orchestra in the last year of his life.▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 21-27, 2011 •

BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

July 21-27, 2011

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Fri 22 >> Andrea Marcovicci @ The Rrazz Room Stage actress-singer performs Blue Champagne: The History of the Torch Song. $35$45. Tue-Sat 7:30pm. Sun 5pm. Thru July 31.

2-drink min. 21+. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Bay Area Playwrights Festival @ Thick House Diverse array of seven new plays taking on all kinds of themes. Opener: Home Below Zero by Dan Dietz. $15 (single) $85 (full pass). 8pm. Plays from 10am-8pm thru July 31. 1695 18th St. 626-2176. www.playwrightsfoundation.org

Billy Elliot @ Orpheum Theatre A recent Marin Shakespeare Company production

Great Outdoors ~ by Jim Provenzano ~

A

number of outdoor plays, concerts and dance events should brighten your summer nights and afternoons. Some are out of town, others out of the way, and one’s even at a few train stations. All of them are guaranteed to be entertaining.

While my own youthful experiences performing outdoors were fraught with the usual hassles (nothing worse than a moth flying into your mouth in the middle of a chorus of “Hello, Dolly!”), watching a well-produced show in an outdoor ampitheatre can be amazing. When the scenery, weather, crowd and themes gel, it’s magical.

Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s bittersweet comedy about Kevin Berne cross-dressing loves, heartache The Verona Project and romance, is re-set in colonial New England at the beautiful Theatre in the Woods. (Note: a short hike is part of the show, so therefore not handicap-accessible) $15-$25. Sat & Sun 1pm thru Sept. 4.

2170 Bear Gulch Road (West), Woodside. www.theatreinthewoods.com As a former theatre brat, I’m more than superstitous about even mentioning Macbeth, currently playing at the Forest Meadows Ampitheatre. Marin Shakespeare Company’s production of the creepy and tragic “Scottish play” is one of the darker yet enticing offerings. Look for the lighter-themed The Complete History of America and the Bard’s The Tempest later this summer. Macbeth plays Fri-Sun 8pm in repertory thru Aug. 14. $20-$75 (season tix). 1475 Acacia Ave., Dominican University, San Rafael. www.marinshakespeare.org For Shakespeare with a pop rock twist, see The Verona Project at Bruns Ampitheatre, Orinda. California Shakespeare Theatre’s production of Amanda Dehnert’s rock music hybrid revisioning of Two Gentlemen of Verona, the Bard’s romantic comedy of errors. $35-$66. Tue-Wed 7:30pm. Fri-Sat 8pm. Sun 4pm. Thru July 31. 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way (100 Gateway Blvd.), Orinda. (510) 548-9666. www.calshakes.org For music in the great outdoors, enjoy the San Francisco Symphony at Stern Grove. Guest Sara Davis Buechner performs Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the symphony; also, Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. July 24. Free. 2pm.

19th Ave. at Sloat Blvd, Golden Gate Park.

Dolly Parton www.sfsymphony.org For some pop fun, check out Junkstock at Lindley Meadow. The third annual live acoustic music concert features 5 Cent Coffee, Vagabondage, Liquor Cake and others. July 23.

Free. All ages. 11am-3pm. Golden Gate Park, 30th Ave. at Fulton.

A camp country icon for many gays, Dolly Parton performs Sunday 24 at Sleep Train Pavilion. Enjoy her classics and songs from her new CD Better Day. $45-$120. 8pm. 2000 Kirker Pass Road, Concord. (925) 6768742. www.concordpavilion.net Last month, TV viewers got to see Axis Dance Company members Rodney Bell and Sonsherée Giles perform a touching duet on the show So You Think You Can Dance. You can see them and their colleagues up close on your commute to or from out of town adventures.

Offering a break from the usual impromptu entertainment on public transportation, AXIS Dance and Dandelion Dance Theatre push their already expanded artistic boundaries beyond the fourth wall and into train stations. The Dislocation Express takes place at East Bay BART Stations, commencing at the new Ed Roberts Campus at Ashby BART, then continues in Walnut Creek in two parts, at 6pm and 7:45pm. July 24, 27, 29, 30. www.axisdance.org/TDE.php Watching commuters’ surprised reactions should be almost as entertaining as the dances.▼

Elton John and Lee Hall’s hit Broadway musical adaptation of the wonderful film about a boy who takes up dance lessons; starring Tony Award winner Faith Prince. $35- TueSat 8pm. Sat, Sun & some Wed 2pm. Some Sundays at 7:30pm. Thru Aug. 21. 1192 Market St. at 8th. (888) SHN 1799. www.shnsf.com

Cultural Encounters @ de Young Museum Special evening event with museum access, to see Masterpieces from the Museé National Picasso, Paris, a new exhibit of classic early modern works by the Spanish master painter; with live music by Stevan Pasero Septet, lectures and short performances.

Free/$12. 5pm-8:45. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. 750-3600. www.famsf.org

Division of Labor @ The Lab Experimental music, sound, performance events with different ensembles each night, including Nao Bustamante, Phillip Huang, Phatima Rude, Damion Romero and many others. $11-$12. Festival pass $36. 8:30pm.

Also July 23. 2948 16th St. www.thelab.org

Geezer @ The Marsh Veteran clown and actor Geoff Hoyle’s witty solo show about his young life in England and his ruminations on aging. $25-$50. Wed & Thu, 8pm. Sat & Sun 5pm. Thru July 10 (returns mid-August). 1062 Valencia St. at 22nd. (800) 838-5750. www.themarsh.org

Jewish Film Festival @ Castro Theatre Weeklong festival of films by and about Jewish people. The Mabul (6:30pm) and Rabies (10pm). Thru July 28. Various times and prices. 429 Castro St. www.sfjff.org www.castrotheatre.com

Marga Gomez @ The Marsh Our fave lesbi-Latina comic tells of her childhood years vs. today in Not Getting Any Younger, a Workshop. $15-$50. Thursdays 8pm, Saturdays 8:30pm, Sundays 7pm. Thru July 24. 1062 Valencia St. at 21st. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

The Real Americans @ The Marsh Dan Hoyle’s moving and funny solo show, with multiple characters based on Midwesterners on the right and Coasters on the left, asks how a politically divided America can survive. $25-$35. Fri 8pm, Sat 8:30pm.

Thru July 24. 1062 Valencia St. at 22nd. 2823055. www.themarsh.org

Salty Towers @ Exit Theatre Thunderbird Theatre Company’s madcap farce about Poseiden’s attempt to host an undersea Olympics to bring business to his failing hotel. $15-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru July 23. 156 Eddy St. 289-6766. www.thunderbirdtheatre.com

Samantha Giron Dance Project @ CounterPulse Sex, Love, Money, a dance work questioning personal values and marriage. $10-$15.

8pm. Also July 23, 10pm. 1310 Mission St. 626-2060. www.counterpulse.org

Sex. That’s Queer! @ Center for Sex & Culture Performance and celebration of sensuality with poet Craig Moreau, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. $5. 8pm. 1349 Mission St. at 9th. wwwsexandculture.org

Tales of the City @ A.C.T. American Conservatory Theatre’s funny and sweet world premiere musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin’s first novels in his popular series, with book by Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q ) and music/lyrics by Jake Shears and John Garden ( Scissor Sisters (ASL-interpeted July 23). Extended thru July 31. Tue-Sat 8pm.

Wed, Sat & Sun 2pm. 415 Geary St. 7492228. www.act-sf.org

AXIS Dance Company and Dandelion Dancetheater in The Dislocation Express.

Luiza Silva

Vice Palace @ Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers, the fabulous ensemble that brought us Pearls Over Shanghai and Hot Greeks, now brings forth the last Cockettes

Fri 22 Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene @ La Peña Cultural Center The Nigerian lesbian poet’s solo show Volcano’s Birthright(s) shares her personal perspectives on love, heartache, art and activism. $12-$15. 8pm. 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568. www.lapena.org musical (which originally starred Divine and Mink Stole), the saucy 1972 revue of songs and sordid silliness, a very loose Fellini-esque parody of Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. $30-$35. Fri & Sat 8pm Sun 7pm. 575 10th st. at Bryant/Division.

Thru July 31. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Sat 23 >> All My Children @ The Marsh, Berkeley Matt Smith’s comic tale of a man who claims to be the father of six children of his exgirlfriends. $20-$35. Fri 8pm. Sat 8:30pm.

Thru July 23. 2120 Allston Way. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Assisted Living, the Musical @ Imperial Palace Rick Compton and Betsy Bennett’s witty musical about senior lives and the joys and woes of aging; Dim Sum banquet with each show. $79.59-$99.50. Sat 12pm. Sun 12 & 5pm. Thru July 31. 818 Washington st.

(888) 885-2844. www.assistedlivingthemusical.com

Bali: Art, Ritual, Performance @ Asian Art Museum Expansive exhibit of more than 100 historic art works in exhibits that showcase the practicality of the performing and visual arts in this beautiful culture. Special event: mask carving and dances with Ida Bagus Anom Suryawan, 12pm-4pm July 23 & 24.

Reg. admission: $7-$17. Reg. hours Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. Thu til 9pm. Thru Sept. 11. 200 Larkin St. www.asianart.org

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi Musical comedy revue, now in its 35th year, with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$130. Wed, Thu, Fri at 8pm. Sat 6:30, 9:30pm. Sun 2pm, 5pm. (Beer/wine served; cash only). 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Disney in Concert @ Davies Hall SF Symphony performs music from popular Disney films; Steven Reineke conducts; film clips, animation cells and storyboards projected during the concert. $30-$90; half price for 17 and under. 8pm. 201 Van Ness Ave. www.sfsymphony.org

Dutch and Flemish Masterworks @ Legion of Honor Famous artists such as Rembrandt, Frans Hals and Hendrick Avercamp are featured in this exhibit of works from the collection of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo. Also, Picasso’s Ceramics (thru Oct. 9), Marvelous Menagerie: A Roman Mosaic from Lod, Israel (thru July 24) and a fascinating permanent collection. $7-$11. Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm. Thru Oct. 2. 100 34th Ave. at Clement, Lincoln Park. 750-3600. www.famsf.org

East 14th @ The Marsh, Berkeley True Tales of a Reluctant Player, Don Reed’s autobiographical solo show about being raised as a God-fearing church boy whose father was a pimp. $20-$35. Sat 8:30pm, Sun 7pm. Thru Aug. 7. 2120 Allston Way. (800) 838-3006. www.themarsh.org

Ecosex Manifesto @ Center for Sex & Culture Annie Sprinkle and her partner Elizabeth Stephens’ curated group exhibit of ecological erotic art. Thru July 24. 1349 Mission St. at 9th. 902-2071. www.loveartlab.org

Hafez Modirzadeh, Ethel @ YBCA Forum Bay Area saxophonist-composer Hafez Modirzadeh presents seven original works featuring Ethel, acclaimed as one of America’s premier post-classical string quartets; also, trumpeter Amir ElSaffar and

vocalist Mili Bermejo. $20-$25. 8pm. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. at 3rd. www.ybca.org

House of Garza @ Café Flore Garza hosts a fundraiser for Latino Pride/ Amor Sin Frontera, with a feast of drag talents and DJ Ken Vulsion. Donations.

10pm-2am. www.cafeflore.com

The Laybelline Show @ Castro Country Club Drag show and fundraiser for the LGBT sober space, with Hi Coloni Anderson, UPhoria, Susan Hoochie, Olivia Hart, Velveeta Whore Mel and Serenity Heart. The adorable Laybelline MCs. $10. 10:30pm. 4058 18th St. www.castrocountryclub.org

Love and Anarchy @ Ictus Gallery Group exhibit of works by Cece Carpio, Kira Curtis, Fernando Marti, and Jermaine Rogers. Opening reception July 23, 6pm-10pm.

Tue-Sat 12pm-5pm thru Sept. 1. 1769 15th St. at Albion. www.ictusgallery.com

Metamorphosis @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Aurora Theatre Company’s production of Mark Jackson’s absurd and horror-tinged play based on Franz Kafka’s classic book about a salesman’s transformation into a giant insect. $10-$55. Tue 7pm; Wed-Sat 8pm.

Sun 2pm & 7pm. Thru July 24. 2081 Addison St. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

Seussical the Musical @ Julia Morgan Theatre, Berkeley Berkeley Plyhouse revives their recent production of the wacky kid-friendly musical based on the Dr. Seuss books. $15-$30.

Fri-Sun various times. Thru Aug. 14. 2640 College Ave. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org www.juliamorgan.org

Teatro Zinzanni @ Pier 29 Joan Baez returns to Teatro in Maestro’s Enchantment, the new show at the theatretent-dinner extravaganza, with Ukranian illusionist Yevgeniy Voronin, clown Peter Pitofsky, aerialist Bianca Sapetto, trapeze artists The Collins Brothers, singer Kristin Clayton, contortionist Svetlana, plus jugglers, comedy, a five-course dinner, and a lot of fun. $117-$145. Saturday 11:30am “Breve” show $63-$78. Wed-Sat 6pm (Sun 5pm). Thru Oct. 9. Pier 29 at Embarcadero Ave. 438-2668. www.teatrozinzanni.com

Tigers Be Still @ SF Playhouse Quirky endearing comedy about an art therapist whose family and work life is complicated; oh, and a tiger’s escaped from a local zoo. $40-$50. 8pm. Tue & Wed 7pm.

Thu-Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm. Thru Sept. 10. 533 Sutter St. near Powell. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Sun 24 >> The Art of Howl @ Cartoon Art Museum Exhibit showcasing Eric Drooker’s drawing and animation for the film about Allen Ginsberg’s famous poem. Gen admission Free-$7. Tue-Sun 11am-5pm. 655 Mission St. (415) CAR-TOON. www.cartoonart.org

Bay Area Now 6 @ YBCA Group exhibit of local visual artists in varied media. Free/$12. Thru Sept. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Emily Bergl @ The Rrazz Room Broadway and TV star performs a rollicking cabaret with a witty theatrical edge; G. Scott Lacey accompanies. $30. 2-drink min.

21+. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Happy Hour @ Energy Talk Radio Interview show with gay writer Adam Sandel as host. 8pm. www.EnergyTalkRadio.com

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 21-27, 2011 •

BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Raw & Uncut @ The Garage New dance works by Patric Cashman, Perceptions Dance, Brianna Taylor, Kerri Myers and Angela Mazziotta. $10-$20. 8pm.

Also July 28. 975 Howard St. www.975howard.com

Same-Sex Dancing @ Queer Ballroom Ongoing partner dance lessons and open dancing in a variety of styles; different each night. $5-$25 open dancing to $55 for private lessons. 151 Potrero Ave. at 15th. www.QueerBallroom.com

Sun 24

SF Marathon Party @ Conservatory of Flowers

Cabaret Showcase Showdown @ Martuni’s Talented singer Jason Brock (photo) co-judges the Best Jazz competition in the monthly singing contest with the lovely Linda Kosut. Trauma Flintstone and Katya Smirnoff-Skyy cohost. $5. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com

Outside the Lines @ Gallery Route One, Point Reyes

Marga’s Funny Mondays @ The Marsh, Berkeley

Group exhibit of unusual folk and contemporary art. 3pm-5pm. Daily 11am-5pm (closed Tuesdays). Thru Aug. 7. 11101 Highway One. 663-1347. www.galleryrouteone.org

Marga Gomez brings her comic talents and special guests to a weekly cabaret show. $10. 8pm. 2120 Allston Way. (800) 8383006. www.margagomez.com www.themarsh.org

Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Exhibit of personal artwork, collected work and archival materials showing how the lesbian poet’s life, mostly in Paris, changed over the decades before and after WWII. Free-$10. Thru Sept. 6. 11am-5pm daily (closed Wed), Thu 1pm-8pm. 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

The Steins Collect @ SF MOMA Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian AvanteGarde, an exhibit of pivotal artworks originally collected by lesbian poet Gertrude Stein and her family. 4th floor galleries. Free (members)-$25. Thru Sept. 6. 11am-5:45pm daily. Closed Wed.; open til 8:45pm Thu. 357-4000. www.sfmoma.org

Stephen Honicki @ Magnet Exhibit of photos with text documenting a metaphoric encounter between men. Thru July. 4122 18th St. at Castro. www.stevehphotography.com www.magnetsf.org

Ten Percent @ Comcast 104 David Perry’s talk show about LGBT local issues. Mon-Fri 11:30am & 10:30pm, Sat & Sun 10:30pm. www.davidperry.com

Tue 26 >> Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey’s Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gayfriendly comedy night. One drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th.

431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Enjoy music, beverages, paper lei playshop and more with contestants in the marathon. $5. 6pm-10pm. 100 JFK Drive, golden Gate Park. www.conservatoryofflowers.org

Thu 28 >> The Arts: A Medium for Peace II @ Commonwealth Club Panel discussion about the arts’ role in peacemaking movements past and present.

Jacquelin Hairston moderates; guests Brenda Wong Aoki, Robert Moses, and Wesley J. Watkins, IV. Part of the Afro Solo Arts Festival. $12-$20. 5:30pm.

595 Market St. www.afrosolo.org www.commonwealthclub.org

International LeatherSIR/ Leatherboy & Community Bookblack @ Holiday Inn Golden Gate The annual leather and kink contest promises community, naughtiness, sexy performances and more. $89-$129. Thru July 31.

1500 Van Ness Ave. (214) 534-8989. www.leathersir.com

Our Vast Queer Past @ GLBT History Museum New exhibit from the GLBT Historical Society, with a wide array of rare historic items on display. Tonight, a screening of Last Call at Maud’s, the documenatry about the famed lesbian bar, at 7pm.

Free for members-$5. Wed-Sat 11am-7pm.

Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room

Jeffrey Long @ Toomey Tourell Gallery

Donna Sachet and Harry Denton host the fabulous weekly brunch and drag show. $45. 11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square.

395-8595. www.harrydenton.com

Birds of California, the West and Other Places, an exhibit of watercolors with a subtle social commentary. Tue-Fri 11am5:30pm (Sat til 5pm). 49 Geary St., 4th fl.

989-6444. www.toomey-tourell.com

Weenie Roast @ Castro Country Club

A Thin Line @ Visual Aid

Not a Genuine Black Man @ The Marsh, Berkeley

Works by Daniel Goldstein, David King, David Wojnarowicz and Philip Zimmerman.

Thru Aug 31. 57 Post St. 777-8242. www.visualaid.org

Brian Copeland’s longrunning autobiographical solo show about racism in San Leandro. $20-$50. 7:30pm. Thru July 14.

(800) 838-3006. www.themarsh.org

Soulful Stitching @ MOAD

Picasso @ de Young Museum

Patchwork Quilts by African (Siddis) in India, a new exhibit of 32 colorful hand-crafted works. 7:30pm. Thru Sept. 18. Reg. hours Wed-Sat 11am-6pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission St. at 3rd. 358-7200. www.moadsf.org

Masterpieces from the Museé National Picasso, Paris, a new exhibit of classic early modern works by the Spanish master painter. Free (members)-$25. Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm. Wed 9:30am-8:45pm (the Aug). Thru Oct. 9. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. 750-3600. www.famsf.org

Volunteer appreciation and recruitment event for volunteers at the sober space, $10 all you can eat, with music, prizes. 12pm3pm. 4058 18th St. www.castrocountryclub.org

Mon 25 >> Cityscapes @ John Pence Gallery Group exhibit of paintings of urban San Francisco. 6pm-8pm. Thru Sept 2. Mon-Fri 10am-6pm Sat til 5pm. 750 Post St. 4411138. www.johnpence.com

Jotas, Home After Dark @ Galeria de la Raza Two group exhibits focusing on Latin home life, and Two-Spirit Native American queer youth. 7:30pm. Reg. hours Tue 1pm-7pm.

Wed-Sat 12pm-6pm. Thru Sept 17. 2857 24th St. www.galeriadelaraza.org

Julia @ The Jewish Theatre Theatre Rhino’s John Fisher directs a Word For Word staged production of the Lillian Helman short story from Pentimento (which became the acclaimed Jane Fonda film). $15. 7pm. 470 Florida St. (800) 838-3006. www.zspace.org

Karel @ The Rrazz Room Witty comic offers his perspective on current events and pop culture. $25. 8pm. 2-drink min. 21+. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Vagabondage @ Bazaar Café Local Americana-folk band performs their winsome music on a shared bill with Chesterton Buff. Free. 7:30-9:30pm. 5927 California St. www.vagabondageband.com

Wed 27 >> Guerrilla Cabaret @ Martuni’s Vocal open mic with the Tom Shaw Trio.

Bring two copies of your song sheet music and belt it out. $5. 7pm. 4 Valncia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com

Is Leather Dead? @ LGBT Center The Leathermen’s Discussion Group hosts a discussion of leather’s past, present and cloudy future with a panel of celebrated names in kink; Guy Baldwin, Race Bannon, Gayle Rubin, Michael Thorn. 7:30-9:30 pm. 1800 Market St., 4th floor Ceremonial Room. www.sfldg.org www.sfcenter.org

Robert Minervini @ YBCA Art scholar presents a lecture-slideshow about the “new natural,” art that brings a focus on the beauty of modern architecture and landscapes. Free with gallery admission.

6pm. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission st. at 3rd. 978-2700. www.ybca.org

Smut Capital of America @ YBCA Ongoing series of artistic and historic adult films made in SF. Tonight, Passing Strangers, Arthur J. Bressan’s vintage gay porno about guys who meet up via BAR personals ads.

More gay flicks next week: Hard Shorts (Aug. 4, 7:30pm) The Meatrack (Aug 5, 7:30pm) Straight erotica and documentaries each Thursday thru August. $6-$8.

7:30pm. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 978-2700. www.ybca.org

W. Kamau Bell @ Stage Werx Theatre The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour, the performer’s funny and pointed multimedia manifesto against racism. $30. 7pm & 9pm. 533 Sutter St. www.wkamaubell.com

To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com.

Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication.

Thu 28 The Hootenanny @ SF Arts Commission Opening reception for a varied exhibit of art work by 13 city and council employees of San Francisco. 6pm-8pm. Thru Aug. 27. 401 Van Ness Ave. www.sfartscommission.org/gallery

For bar and nightlife events, go to www.bartabsf.com

www.ebar.com

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

<< Society

July 21-27, 2011

▼

Jeannie dreams fulfilled

by Donna Sachet

J

une and Pride Week may be history, but your intrepid reporter continues to dash about town. Sunday, July 10, saw us at Marc Huestis’ fabulous tribute to television star Barbara Eden at the Castro Theatre. The evening started with a career highlight clip, including appearances on I Love Lucy, The Sonny & Cher Show, several Bob Hope specials, and an assortment of scenes from the iconic I Dream of Jeannie television series.

The stage was set with a gargantuan, exotic bottle from which emerged first The Garden of Eden Belly Dancing Superstars, then Arturo Galster in his own Moroccan-inspired outfit, then about eight different I Dream of Jeannie look-alikes for a contest, many complete with dance routines, and finally Jeannie herself, Barbara Eden. She looked lovely in sleek black pants, a sheer black, longsleeved blouse, and her signature blonde, banged hairstyle. Huestis proceeded to interview her about her many television and some movie experiences, unable to get a single cynical comment out of her, as well as her memories of growing up in San Francisco. As winner of the Miss San Francisco 1951 Pageant, she was delighted by an onstage appearance by the current Miss San Francisco and her court, with a proclamation from Mayor Ed Lee. Marc certainly knows how to make a star shine, and Ms. Eden left everyone thoroughly charmed.

Afterwards, we headed to Rebel for Chastity Belle’s drag tribute to Judy Garland in her legendary 1961 Carnegie Hall concert.

Although we’d heard much about this talented performer and her dedication to a complete replay of that fateful night, nothing could have prepared us for the reality of The Return of Judy. Well over 100 loyal fans stood around the stage as Chastity not only performed every song, but even lip-synched the patter

Steven Underhill

I Dream of Jeannie star Barbara Eden at the Castro Theatre.

in-between, including comments to the stagehands, the audience, etc. We were some distance from the stage, but we never saw her miss a word or lyric. She mimicked some typical Judy moves quite well, even using the microphone in a way that supported the technical sounds from the equipment at the concert. Suffice it to say, this devoted Judy Garland fan was blown away! The attention to detail that she has given every nuance of this recorded performance is incredible.

Kudos to Chastity Belle!

Tuesday night, we finally dined at Melissa Perello’s Frances, one of the few restaurants in San Francisco with a Michelin star. Located on 17th Street in the heart of the Castro, the feeling here is relaxed, the service is courteous but unobtrusive, and the food is a delightfully creative blend of French recipes and California ingredients. Lu Conrad and Randy & Joan Pacelli joined us in praising the Applewood Smoked Bacon Beignets, Carnaroli Risotto, White Corn Soup, Pacific King salmon, and Northern Halibut. We ended with Buttermilk Upside-down Cake and Lumberjack Cake, new fans of this highly reviewed See page 33 >>

Coming up in leather and kink Thu., Jul. 21: Locker Room Thursdays at Kok Bar SF (1225 Folsom). 9 p.m.-close. Free clothes check.

Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

at the SF Citadel. 2-6 p.m. $20 or $10 with potluck food to share. $10 annual membership required.

Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Thu., Jul. 21: Underwear Night at The Powerhouse (1347 Folsom). 10 p.m. Wet undie contest and drink specials. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Sun., Jul. 24: Castrobear presents Sunday Furry Sunday at 440 Castro. 4-10 p.m. Go to: www.castrobear.com.

Thu., Jul. 21: Polyamory – How to Love Many and Well, presented by M. Christian at the SF Citadel (1277 Mission). 8-10 p.m. $20. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Sun., Jul. 24: PoHo Sundays at the Powerhouse. DJ Keith, Dollar Drafts all day. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Fri., Jul. 22: Truck Wash at Truck (1900 Folsom).

10 p.m.-close. Live shower boys and drink specials.

Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Fri., Jul. 22: Strip, hosted by and benefiting the Stop AIDS Project at Kok Bar SF. $5 cover, Cheap Ass contest at 1 a.m. $100 grand prize. Enter contest at 11 p.m. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Fri., Jul. 22: Tryst at the SF Citadel. 8 p.m.-1 a.m.

For those on the market for new dating partners.

This is a pansexual party catering to both the monogamous and polyamorous communities. $25 plus $10 Citadel membership. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Fri., Jul. 22-Sun., Jul. 24: First Annual Gear Up Weekend at the Sarasota Springs Resort.

This is a men-only fetish weekend. Go to: www.gearupweekend.com.

Sat., Jul. 23: All Beef Saturday Nights at the Lone Star (1354 Harrison). 100% SoMa Beef & Co. 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Go to: www.facebook.com/lonestarsf.

Sat., Jul. 23: Kok Block at Kok Bar SF. 4-9 p.m. $50 pool tournament starts at 6:30 p.m. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sun., Jul. 24: The SF Citadel Takes Over WaterWorld (1950 Waterworld Pkwy., Concord). Meet at the WaterWorld front gate at 11 a.m. Costs: $20-$33.

Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Sun., Jul. 24: Sunday Service hosted by Miss Bee

Mon., Jul. 25: Whipworks, a monthly Singletail peer group facilitated by Daddy Darin. 8-10 p.m. $10. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Mon., Jul. 25: Dirty Dicks at the Powerhouse. Starts at 4 p.m. $3 well drinks. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Tue., Jul. 26: BDSM, Body Image, and Beyond presented by Kery at the SF Citadel. 8-10 p.m. $20.

Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Tue., Jul. 26: Busted at Truck. 9 p.m.-close. $5 beer bust from 9-11 p.m. Great music, and the notorious Truck boys. Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Wed., Jul. 27: Leather Buddies at Blow Buddies.

This is a male-only club. Doors open 8 p.m.-12 a.m.

Play till late. Go to: www.blowbuddies.com.

Wed., Jul. 27: Bear Bust Wednesdays at Kok Bar SF. $6 all-you-can-drink Bud Light or Rolling Rock drafts. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Wed., Jul. 27: Nipple Play at the Powerhouse.

10 p.m.-2 a.m. Specials for shirtless guys. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Wed., Jul. 27: Leathermen’s Discussion Group Special Panel: Is Leather Dead? Does It Need To Die? at the LGBT Center (1800 Market, 4th Floor). Featuring Guy Baldwin, Race Bannon, Michael Thorn and Gayle Rubin. Food & refreshments provided the Powerhouse, Truck, and Cafe Flore. Trips to the Powerhouse and Truck afterwards. Go to: www.sfldg.org.

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Karrnal>>

July 21-27, 2011 •

BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

Leather lust

by John F. Karr

M

uscles in Leather, a recent Colt Studios movie, contains a grievous Goodbye to Phillip Aubrey, a Hello Again to Casey Williams upon his return to porn after an absence of a half-dozen years, and a Welcome to the further impressive adventures of newcomer Scott Carter.

I’ve been a big fan of Phillip Aubrey, with his fine looks, sinuous body and gangbuster sexuality. A week ago Wednesday, I watched him and Spencer Reed banging it out in this movie in the most sensuous yet intense fashion. It’s a good movie, and theirs is its best scene. The next day, complications set in, with the news that Aubrey had attacked Reed with a knife, causing a wound that needed a weekend hospital stay and 27 stitches. Aubrey is currently in jail, pending charges of assault and attempted possession of a prohibited weapon.

Porn fans, who write evil remarks with unwarranted bile on a variety of news blogs, allege steroid rage and white-powder abuse. Reed and Aubrey were porn’s Power Couple; romantic in approach, ruthless in the act. Aubrey’s self-destructive demise is very sad. I’m sure his career is over. Will I be able to watch him again with any pleasure? Not for a long time, at least. Pity. I feel bad for him, and worse for Reed.

And their scene in Muscles in Leather is so good. One of their very best. They look so good, draped in leather, and making out slowly, as they savor a long spell of foreplay.

I’ve complained a lot about the lack of foreplay most everywhere in porn. But here, it’s larded on at satisfying length. It’s masculine, leatherman’s foreplay; nestling improbably bulging codpiece jocks, nosing into armpits, kissing slowly and deeply. The entire movie is marked with this simultaneously luxurious and fierce mood – even when the fucking gears up to blast into a scene’s climax, it has a quiet strength that speaks of a leather solidity.

The whole movie sustains that mode. Director Kristofer Weston sure knew what he wanted. The excellent camerawork of Max Phillips maximizes penis size, and stays mostly on the level, while his editing resists nervous

<<

Colt Studios

Nate Karlton in Colt Studios’ Muscles in Leather.

fragmentation. Jordan Michael’s music is similarly in synch, with its low-keyed, constant throb.

Scene two gloats all over the robust contours of John Magnum’s cock, and then greets Casey Williams. He’s as tautly muscled as ever, but with added mass. No longer a smooth-shaven kid, he’s got an adult’s body hair, a scruff of beard, and a little more than a hint of crow’s feet. Completely unchanged, thank you, is that superstiff, sharp upward jab of cock. The pair play intently, but the scene doesn’t catch fire – though it always presents stirring sights, like Magnum bouncing atop William’s cock when, surprisingly, it’s Williams who tops Magnum. Williams drops a gush of cum just south of Magnum’s mouth – which yearns closer in a fruitless attempt to catch the stuff.

My agenda for this review was upended by Phillip Aubrey’s drama.

What I most wanted to do was fawn over Nate Karlton. Of all the manly men in this movie, he’s the most.

And boy, that superlative cock of his – globe-headed, plump, and weighty – looks splendid boasting a half-inch wide chrome cockring at

its base. In half of Karlton’s six Colt movies his body has been shorn of hair. Not this time. And unshaven is the way his chest should always be.

Karlton’s scene with muscle-mass Samuel Colt begins all touchy-feely, kissy-gropey. When Colt’s codpiece finally comes off, we see the wide ball-stretcher that’ll stay on through the scene, and through Karlton’s memorable screwing, which begins with an agonizingly slow entry, and rises to an exciting slam-fuck.

Finally, we have Kristian Alvarez rather savagely fucking Scott Carter.

This handsome, uncut Canadian has made four effective appearances in Lucas films, and quickly became one of my favorites. This is his second scene for Colt – the first was a solo with dildo that rocked my world.

Carter is handsome in an unusual way, with the biggest eyes ever seen, set far apart. A craggy face, sturdy body, and extra-long cock are further attributes. I suspect (and hope) we’ll see a lot of him. In this scene, the power bottom looks great in leather accessories, and takes everything fierce fucker Alvarez dishes out. Please, sir, I’d like a little more Carter.▼ www.ColtStudios.com

On the Town From page 32

restaurant. Conversation continued afterwards at Last Call, one of the smallest but friendliest bars in the Castro.

We celebrated Bastille Day at the Green Room of the War Memorial Building with Romain Serman, le Consul General de France. As you must know, we love pageantry and dressy occasions, so we were thrilled to receive the distinctive invitation which included a VIP entrance and formal presentation to the Consul General and his lovely wife. After a few glasses of champagne (mais bien sur) and conversation with the likes of socialite Vera Carpanetti, Canadian Consul Ara Lotfijou, Paul Melbostad, the B.A.R.’s own Michael Yamashita, and other local Francophiles, the B.A.R.’s Publisher Tom Horn was decorated with a Commander insignia from the French government in recognition of his long support of all things French. Although much of the speech from the microphone was in French, the spirit of the evening was easily translatable, an obvious salute to the warm relations between

Steven Underhill

Model Carlos Torres with a Jeannie look-alike at the Barbara Eden tribute.

our two countries.

As is our custom whenever in the neighborhood of City Hall, we retired afterwards to the intimate setting of Deco Lounge, where friendly bartenders and nightly specials keep a loyal audience coming back for more.

You may have heard that Harry Denton’s Starlight Room is starting an extensive remodeling project,

but never fear: Sunday’s a Drag will continue its amazing run of over five years! We will be relocating to the Franciscan Room of the same hotel, offering the same scrumptious brunch buffet and two smashing shows at Noon and 2:30 p.m. each Sunday. San Francisco must have its drag! Make a reservation and join us soon.▼

ebar.com

34 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

<< TV

July 21-27, 2011

▼

Epic fail

by Victoria A. Brownworth

W

e’ve said it before, and no doubt we will have many opportunities to say it again: Schadenfreude – or as the Hindus call it, karma – is our guiltiest pleasure. We admitted to a chuckle or more when To Catch a Predator’s sleazy Chris Hansen got caught with his own pants down by his wife via a hidden camera.

At least it wasn’t with a child, and he wasn’t carrying a six-pack and a bag of condoms, but still, very satisfying. We’ve never been a fan of the sting operation, given how many real criminals are out there needing to be caught. Or just brought to the Hague. But we digress.

Back to karmic payback: So despite

the awfulness of the circumstances about which Rupert Murdoch was speaking – the murder of a child, and the false hope her desperate parents were given as his flagship British tabloid News of the World hacked into the child’s cell phone days after she was already dead, leading her parents to believe she was still alive and retrieving their messages – it was immensely satisfying to see the media mogul give a Greek chorus of mea culpae (excuse the catachresis) on July 15 as his empire crumbled due to journalistic behavior that would even put Andrew Breitbart to shame.

Remember Mark Halperin’s comments about President Obama?

Murdoch is well-deserving of the same. When you act like a dick,

then expect people to be pleased when you get yours, sans lube. The news about the Murdoch empire is astonishing, and the fact that Murdoch himself is apologizing really is a once-in-alifetime moment. All these years we thought the Murdoch papers and TV news outlets were merely smarmy and repugnant, but they were apparently involved in criminal acts.

There’s been a great deal of pontificating, notably not on Fox, about what will become of Fox. But consider that Murdoch also owns the venerable if contemptible Wall Street Journal, as well as the Dow Global media czar Rupert Murdoch.

Jones, and it looks a little more like how China has again when he told the Republicans us by the short hairs. Do before walking out, “I have to ask we really want Murdoch to fail here in myself if Ronald Reagan would still the U.S.? Some of the best non-news be sitting here.” Not if Nancy had programming on the air comes from cookies and a glass of milk for him, Fox. Plus, the Dow Jones. On July no, he would not.

15, mere moments after Murdoch’s Anyone who is surprised that mea culpae, the publisher of the Wall the Republicans are acting like Street Journal resigned. Yikes. intransigent bastards must have Meanwhile, while the quaking goes been off the planet. The Republicans on over at Fox, CNN is shaking things haven’t changed: everything you’ve up rather dramatically. Anderson heard them say on the news day after Cooper, known to his gay audience day while they play with the lives of as the Silver Fox (no association with millions of Americans is what they Murdoch, and excuse us, but how have always said. They were never could the son of Gloria Vanderbilt that into you, and they only took your not be gay?), will be the star of CNN number to get you to go away. nightly, which is pretty exciting, since Speaking of queers being screwed, over at MSNBC, Rachel Maddow is Chris Colfer, we still heart you, even now the star of their nightly roundup. if the folks at Glee haven’t got a clue.

For those of us addicted to politics There really is life after high school. and real reporting, this is excellent One of the all-time best high-schoolnews. Cooper is a fabulous journalist linked shows, Buffy, the Vampire in more ways than one. Let’s not forget Slayer, managed to take the crew his stellar reportage around the globe from high school on to college and/ in numerous wars and “conflicts.” or hanging out rather seamlessly. As a His reporting during the horror of viewer a critic, and a Gleek, we resent Katrina, where he practically hurt the Powers That Be dumping Emmy FEMA people he was so outraged, winners instead of embracing them. dragging them to see what was The face slap of Colfer finding out going on, got him slammed by lesser he was being axed via Twitter is just journalists who said he crossed the inexcusable. Maybe the Fox doesn’t line in helping people. He got the fall too far from the Murdoch after all. same slamming when he covered the Did they not hear Colfer’s heartHaiti earthquake. During the Arab breaking rendition of “As If We spring, Cooper got the Armani beat Never Said Goodbye?” The nuance, out of him while covering Tahrir the pathos, the passion: Kurt doesn’t Square as he chased down a story. have to be your favorite Gleek to fall Cooper said he’s looking forward to your knees for this song. And Lea to his Anderson Cooper 360 being Michele is such a huge talent, her the flagship show. CNN boss Ken risky magazine covers aside, that Jautz said in a press release that this dumping her is ludicrous as well. emphasizes CNN’s commitment to Listen to the music, PTB. We <3 quality journalism. One of the things these people. Fox found a way to keep we like most about Cooper, beyond Sunnydale alive. It can find a way to his gayness, intellect and acuity, is his keep McKinley alive. solid foundation as a journalist. He Speaking of rethinking: What is hates lying, and takes politicians of all going on over at ABC daytime? All stripes (hence the 360) to task nightly.

My Children ends its bodacious run He has verve, fervor and a real passion come September to be replaced by for the truth. Too bad Murdoch never yet another repetitious foodie show, ran into him. titled, revoltingly, The Chew. So it’s all Now from the sublime to the slimy: stops out till then, apparently. Susan Because we loathe Keith Olbermann Lucci’s Erica Kane has an evil, plasticfor his incredible arrogance, which is surgeried Doppelganger. Erica’s epitomized by his gigantic head, we daughter, dear, sweet, delusional dyke were pleased to note that MSNBC’s Bianca Montgomery, has fallen in numbers have gone way up since the love with yet another straight woman.

Keith quit, then misrepresented his Because apparently she thinks six (or quitting as a firing to his audience, is it seven?) is the charm. But then then waited to reveal the truth after there are no other lesbians in Pine letter-writing campaigns had been Valley, and she’s a real lesbian who started, then popped up over at notonly does women. so-Current. Looks like Olbermann’s There’s chemistry there. It’s not like tale that MSNBC is going down the chemistry at Guiding Light in its without him probably only referred waning days, when Jessica Leccia and once again to some big head.

Crystal Chappell were all over each This leads neatly into what a other in pulchritudinous splendor, colossal cock-up (to use a nice but it is a burgeoning attraction Britishism) Obama and the with Marissa Chandler, who has Republicans have wrought over the been burned by one-too-many men. debt ceiling and the deficit, which But can we just look at how this is all the news we get to see these relationship began? Bianca (Christine days. (Just a reminder: we’re still in Bennett Lind) came back to Pine three wars, still torturing people, still Valley sans wife Reese (Tamara Braun, assassinating people, and still gutting now over at Days) and their two the poor, queers, women and people children. Bianca decided she wanted of color.) We did like hearing Obama to stay in Pine Valley. Reese wanted invoke his second favorite president

to stay in Paris. Rather than have a long-distance relationship like millions of couples, they chose divorce.

Marissa (Sarah Glendening), ex-wife of Bianca’s old frenemy JR Chandler, was hired for the divorce. Bianca thought Reese would just give up her children and hand them over to Bianca like their marriage never happened. Marissa had warned Bianca, but she didn’t listen. Then Reese sent her attorney and nanny to get the kids. Meanwhile, Marissa and Bianca also ended up getting kidnapped (you don’t want to know), but escaped. Marissa went back home to be comforted

by JR, because they are still trying to get back together, pretty typical for the women Bianca gets involved with.

So Bianca has once again told the straight chick that she has feelings for her, and the straight chick (because everyone has their bi-curious moments) has said she has feelings, too. But we know, because we know Bianca’s history, that this will end badly for Bianca. Plus, she may lose her kids to Reese.

One of the perils of being queer on the tube is that there is almost never anyone to be queer with in your town. You’d think at some point Bianca would have realized that being involved with straight women is where it all goes wrong for her.

Repeatedly. Let’s hope she finds some real lesbians to be lovers with before the show ends in September.

Last time, we said True Blood was the best show on the tube, and we got quite a bit of Twitter response. (Feel free to kvetch in 140 characters @ VABVOX.) So here’s our broadened list of the top five (after True Blood and Combat Hospital) best shows right now on the tube: The Closer is back for its final season. There is no stronger female character on the tube than Brenda Leigh Johnson (multiple Emmy diva Kyra Sedgwick). Now there’s always Patty Hewes on Damages, also just starting its new season. Glenn Close has never been better. Don’t look for the show on FX, because they stupidly tossed it.

DirecTV picked it up, and it’s just as terrific as ever. For comedy, there is nothing funnier than the hilarious Louie on FX. For reality TV, we recommend America’s Got Talent, Project Runway with our gay pal Tim Gunn, and Hell’s Kitchen with our favorite vicious Brit, Gordon Ramsay. These shows have the most queer contestants, which makes them much more fun. Plus they showcase real talent.

Finally, Scott Pelley is really ratcheting it up over at CBS Evening News. Pelley’s approaching his anchor spot like a Marine drill sergeant. News, harder news, almost unbearable news.

On the July 15 newscast, CBS had veteran reporter David Martin down in Section 60 of Arlington Cemetery, where the young families of the dead from Iraq and Afghanistan have picnics at the gravesites of their young husbands, boyfriends, sons.

The stories that Martin focused on were almost unbearably tragic: the wife of one dead soldier found out she was pregnant with her second child four days after she was notified of her husband’s death. He was an R&R baby, she said. She also said finding out she was pregnant helped her through her husband’s death. He was 29. Another baby lies on the grass in front of his father’s grave – he was born four months after his father was killed. His mother wants her son to know his father. This is news. This is reminding us of what we can’t afford to forget. And this is why you really must stay tuned.▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 21-27, 2011 •

BAY AREA REPORTER • 35

36 • BAY AREA REPORTER •

<< Music

July 21-27, 2011

▼

Dynamic duos

by Gregg Shapiro

S

outhern songbirds and siblings The Secret Sisters (Laura and Lydia Rogers) harmonize gloriously on their self-titled Universal Republic debut disc. Whether they’re daringly remaking a duet classic such as “Something Stupid,” digging up a vintage obscurity (“I’ve Got a Feeling”) or paying homage to country forefathers such as Buck Owens (“My Heart Skips a Beat”), George Jones (“Why Baby Why”) or Hank Williams (“Why Don’t You Love Me”), the sisters simmer and sizzle. Originals such as “Tennessee Me” and “Waste the Day” also speak volumes about the gals’ talents.

A more stripped down countryinfluenced duo, The Civil Wars (Joy Williams and John Paul White) also harmonize in a heavenly manner on their fulllength studio debut Barton Hollow (Sensibility). Taking turns on lead vocals or blending their voices, The Civil Wars’ songs have an emotional intimacy that’s hard to miss.

As duos go, The Black Keys make as much good noise as The White Stripes. The bluesy soul of the 15 songs on Brothers (Nonesuch) has a way of stirring up a false sense of nostalgia, right down to the retro-looking album cover. But the

songs, while referential, are nothing less than modern and original compositions.

Twenty years after releasing their major-label debut, Over the Rhine is still going strong, putting their Rust Belt spin on Americana. Joe Henry is just the right producer for the pair’s latest project, The Long Surrender (Great Speckled Dog). They get moodier with each release. The Long Surrender opens with Greg Leisz’s distinctive mandolin work on “The Laugh of Recognition,” while Karin Bergquist plaintively implores, “Come on, boys.” The piano-andvocal “Sharpest Blade” is cut with drama. OTR is a literate twosome, and “Rave On” is based on a poem

of the same name by B.H. Fairchild.

Yes, that’s Lucinda Williams on “Undamned,” a fitting guest duet partner if ever there were one. Other songs sure sound like a Tom Waits homage.

Cat’s Eyes self-titled debut on Cooperative Music/Downtown is something to purr about. The unlikely mingling of the talents of The Horrors’ vocalist Faris Badwan

and Canadian opera singer/ musician Rachel Zeffira has yielded 10 hauntingly hip tunes. As theme songs go, the title track is nothing to hiss at.

Reduced to a duo on Vices & Virtues (Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen), Panic! At the Disco still know how to make an emo ruckus.

Even if you don’t dig emo (see Fall Out Boy), there’s something appealing about the way the dudes weave an infectious d dance beat into songs ssuch as “Let’s Kill T Tonight” and “Ready T To Go (Get Me Out o of My Mind)” (which ssounds like a lost The K Killers track) without ssacrificing any (post) aadolescent angst. The gguys even refresh ttheir palette with the llovely acoustic ballad ““Always” and the rretro pop of “Sarah Smiles.”

Out musician Kate Cooper and Damien Cox of An Horse have picked up the pace a bit on “Dressed Sharply,” the opening cut on Walls (Mom+Pop).

You might even mistake them for a mixed-gender Tegan and Sara. In fact, the whole musical mood of the disc is somewhat brighter, as you can hear on galloping tracks such as the title cut and “Trains and Tracks.”

Beach House isn’t the only male/ female Maryland duo mining a modern psychedelic vein. On Tall Hours in the Glowstream (Suicide Squeeze), Cotton Jones taps into a similar musical mindset. But Cotton Jones adds a country gospel element to their sound, which is most audible on “Somehow To Keep It Going” and “Man Climbs Out of the Winter.”▼

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 21-27, 2011 •

Courtesy SFJFF

From Tomer Heymann’s The Queen Has No Crown.

Courtesy SFJFF

From Karin Kainer’s Skate of Mind.

<<

SF Jewish Film Fest From page 21

boyfriend.

At one point, Erez the brother becomes exasperated with the nonstop filming, his reproach going beyond his sibling’s disregard for personal boundaries to the touchy if unspoken issue of what his gay brother will contribute to the ongoing life of the Heymann clan.

“Tomer, life is not a documentary.

You should leave something behind besides mediocre films.”

Eventually the camera reveals strains, too, between Tomer and Erez the boyfriend.

“Will we make love tonight?”

“Yes.” “Will you give yourself to me?”

“Yes.” “Do you still believe in our relationship?” “Yes, as long as you believe in it.”

Long before the final reel, Erez

<<

and Tomer are history.

Taking his title from an odd Israeli folk tune taught to the Heymann boys by their Pop, Tomer’s prickly home movie catches rips in the fabric of the family – by film’s end, three of the brothers have decamped for America – that reflect more ominous tears in the tribal bonds of his still-young nation. (Castro, 7/27; Roda, 7/30; Oshman, 8/7) Life is Too Long “Alain has semen in his hair!” Among the least worrisome pratfalls in the frequently hilarious travails of a Jewish German filmmaker making absurd attempts to be taken seriously in a popcornmovie world is bad dad director Alfi Seliger’s discovery that his 13-yearold son Alain has declared himself to be bisexual and beyond his law.

Parenting is not exactly the #1 item on Alfi’s agenda considering his struggles with his body – he suspects he has colon cancer; his wife – she’s having a poorly concealed affair; his

career – his latest script: a satirical stab involving the infamous Danish cartoons depicting Islam’s founding father lacks funding. Director Dani Levy (Go for Zucker!) creates a Woody Allen-worthy alter ego whose misadventures constitute an homage to Allen’s own selfparodying masterpiece Stardust Memories. This is that German comedy whose punchlines translate brilliantly. (Castro, 7/25; Oshman, 8/4; Roda, 8/6; Rafael, 8/7) Skate of Mind Trust the Jewish to find a little gem of a skateboarding movie that not only captures the vibes of an Israeli/Arab kid who must daily defy gravity, the laws of physics and the integrity of his body to learn new board tricks, but that breaks new ground in exploring interfaith relationships in a land where an Arab boy dating a Jewish girl can practically be considered an act of war. Doc maker Karin Kainer does full justice to his charismatic 20-year-old hero Mohammed Kahil, who is simultaneously trying to woo his fashion-design aspiring Jewish girlfriend Alina, while trying to maintain some kind of ties with his

recently imprisoned Pop. This film rocks visually and musically, with a pulsating rock soundtrack from Israel’s Rami Fortis. (JCCSF, 7/31; Roda, 8/4) Standing Silent In a doc you won’t soon forget, Baltimore newspaperman Phil Jacobs finds the scoop of a lifetime in a sex scandal that will rock his cloistered Orthodox Jewish world in a once-sleepy Baltimore neighborhood.

Jacobs, writing for the Baltimore Jewish Times, has dug up evidence that several respectable, religiouslyaffiliated men are involved in longrunning sexual improprieties: cases where they have forced themselves on minors of both genders. In the hands of doc maker Scott Rosenfelt, Jacobs becomes the conscience for a community of 100,000 souls, while experiencing a harrowing flashback to an abusive moment from his teen years. In a story that will resonate strongly in the wake of the recent terrible headlines from Borough Park, Brooklyn, we watch Jacobs making phone calls that will nail the story and send a prominent man to face serious charges, while snow falls gently outside his office window. It’s

Going Dutch From page 21

point out what’s missing. When one thinks of the Golden Age of Dutch painting, Vermeer and Rembrandt immediately leap to mind, but you’ll find no Vermeers here – only 35 are known to exist – and Rembrandt, who was the most sought-after portraitist in Amsterdam and the most influential and versatile artist in 17th-century Holland, is represented by only two small etchings and a single, early portrait.

(It will come as no surprise to learn that Rembrandts rarely come on the market, and are astronomically expensive when they do.) But his presence is felt, especially in pieces such as “Sleeping Man Having His Pockets Picked” (ca. 1655), a genre scene by Nicolaes Maes, one of the artist’s ubiquitous, highly accomplished pupils. In it, a mischievous young girl brings a finger to her lips as if to say, “Shh, don’t tell,” making the viewer complicit while she nimbly slips her free hand into the pockets of a man napping in his armchair.

During the 1600s, Holland was a major maritime power with a vast trading empire that enriched the middle classes, who, for the first time, could afford to commission works of art. Thousands of artists arrived there, including Flemish painters fleeing Spanish religious persecution and the ravages of war in Belgium, drawn by the nation’s reputation for tolerance, its wealth and the prospect of a wide popular market. Artists were free to paint what they knew instead of subjects dictated by the Catholic Church or nobility, and the invention of the telescope and microscope helped launch an investigation into realism and how objects related in space and reflected or refracted light.

Rose-Marie van Otterloo discusses her and her husband’s first painting purchase, “River Landscape with Peasants in a Ferryboat” by Jan van Geyen, part of the show Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection at the Palace of the Legion of Honor.

BAY AREA REPORTER • 37

a Sundance-funded look into a cold little universe, where no bad deed goes unreported. (JCCSF, 7/31; Roda, 8/1; Rafael, 8/8) Polish Bar Ben Berkowitz gets terrific performances from Vincent Piazza and veteran Judd Hirsch in showing us the underside of a Chicago Orthodox community where an ambitious young DJ, Reuben (Piazza), betrays his uncle’s trust while trying to carve out a career for himself in the world of hip hop, drug-dealing and pole dancers. (Castro, 7/23; Roda, 7/30; Oshman, 8/2; Rafael, 8/6) The Matchmaker Avi Nesher captures a moment in time (1968 Haifa) when a beautiful teen gets life lessons from a wise if conflicted mentor. This is a coming of age tale that blends a caper mystery with dwarfs and a bittersweet story with origins in the Holocaust. (JCCSF, 7/30; Oshman, 8/1; Roda, 8/6; Rafael, 8/8) Bobby Fischer Against the World Who knew chess could be so dangerous for a growing boy? In Liz Garbus’ exhaustive doc, the world of high-stakes professional chess becomes as shady and hazardous as the world of professional boxing. Rounding up the surviving witnesses to the great Bobby Fischer/ Boris Spassky chess match, Garbus shows how Fischer went from being a prodigy golden boy to a reviled, bitter old man. (Castro, 7/23; Roda, 8/1; Oshman, 8/2; Rafael, 8/6) Eichmann’s End: Love, Betrayal, Death Raymond Ley’s experimental docudrama proves that Adolph Eichmann was a bigger bastard than we had previously imagined. The runup to Eichmann’s kidnapping and Israeli trial is spiced up with the tale of a covert romance between his son and a Jewish girl, and a revolting series of taped conversations with a right-wing Dutch journalist. (Castro, 7/25; Roda, 8/1; Oshman, 8/7) ▼ www.sfjff.org

And who wouldn’t be smitten?

Bathed in the warm glow of impending dusk, Jan Both’s idyllic “Italianate Landscape with Travelers on a Path” (1645-50) looks like a pastoral vision of the gates of heaven on earth. The frolicking nymphs and half-naked figures cavorting in a temple garden, surrounded by wine, music, Roman statuary and olive trees in “An Offering to Venus” and “Bacchus and Bacchantes,” a pair of works depicting mythological scenes of decadent revelry, were painted by Cesar Boetius van Everdingen, who never set foot in the country, except in his imagination. These and other paintings attest to the bewitching effect of Bella Italia on the northern psyche.▼

Rick Gerharter

Rituals of daily life were celebrated in works like Willem Van Aelst’s precise rendering of the mundane, “Still Life with a Candle, Walnuts, and a Mouse” (1647) and Godfried Schalcken’s “Young Girl Eating Sweets” (1680-85), in which a young woman, in a satiny orange dress, is on the verge of licking sugar off her fingers. “The Artist at Work in Her Studio” (ca. 1680), by Schalcken’s younger sister Maria, one of the few women artists of the period, is also on view.

The collection’s emphasis is less on portraiture, unfortunately, than on genre paintings, city and rural landscapes and maritime scenes of which there are an abundance – turbulent seas, cloud formations, stormy or snowy weather and fog-shrouded coastlines figure prominently – as well as still-lifes and a handful of stunning portraits.

The exhibition is installed mostly by genre, though the landscape portion, which is the largest and treads perilously close to the repetitive, is divided into three parts. The final

section, devoted to Dutch Italianate artists who experienced the warmth of the Mediterranean landscape, illustrates what can happen when men from a damp, chilly climate,

consigned to toil in dank, dimly lit rooms and hustle around in heavy overcoats, are exposed to the golden light and sensual pleasures of Italy: instant intoxication.

Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection, through Oct. 2 at the Legion of Honor. www.legionofhonor.famsf.org

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