July 25, 2013 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

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Lady Bunny hops into town

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Vol. 43 • No. 30 • July 25-31, 2013

Services needed for LGBT homeless by Matthew S. Bajko

im Oviatt has been living in his Chrysler Sebring convertible since January, often parking it outside the home and bath products store where he

works part-time. The single, 64-year-old gay man had been renting a shared flat with two roommates in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood throughout 2012. But in December the landlord asked Oviatt and the other tenant Father River Sims stops to talk to a homeless person on a recent Sunday as he did street outreach in the Polk neighborhood.

Courtesy Brad Frazier

Pedro “Antonio” Ayon Garcia, left, has been sent to an immigration facility in Pennsylvania while his partner, Brad Frazier, is working to get him returned to San Francisco.

Gay binational couple fights feds by Seth Hemmelgarn

Mexican-born San Francisco man is being held in Pennsylvania for a visa violation while his husband, a U.S. citizen, tries to get him out. The dilemma facing Pedro “Antonio” Ayon Garcia, 45, and Brad Frazier, 44, who’ve been together for 10 years, comes just as same-sex couples are finally allowed to marry in California and the federal government starts recognizing the rights of binational couples. It also seems to point to ineptitude within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Frazier said. “We’ve spent our whole relationship doing what we can to legitimize ourselves, but those options just weren’t there,” said Frazier. But finally, in late June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down California’s Proposition 8 samesex marriage ban as well as a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex unions. “Now that those options are there, and it’s what we’ve wanted the whole time, there’s a federal agency standing in the way, and it is so bureaucracy-laden they can’t even take a look at the story and the humans involved and say, ‘Oh, this is easily solvable,’” he said. The couple isn’t legally married but they registered as domestic partners in 2011 and refer to each other as husbands. Their trouble started June 2 as Garcia was returning from a visit to his mother in Mexicali, Mexico. He was stopped as he crossed from Mexicali to Calexico, California, Frazier said in a summary. According to DHS records, Garcia presented a DSP-150 visitor’s visa to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer and admitted that he’d been living and working in the United States without the proper visa. Eventually, he also “admitted living with his boyfriend in San Francisco” for the past decade, the documents say. His visa was canceled and he returned to Mexico, according to the file, which Frazier shared with the Bay Area Reporter. Frazier said in a fact sheet that when Garcia tried to return to California, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents See page 13 >>

Pete Thoshinsky

to move out, as he wanted to live alone. Lacking enough money to secure a new apartment, Oviatt has spent the last seven months largely in his vehicle as he tries to secure affordable housing in the city. “It is a struggle,” said Oviatt, who relocated to San Francisco in the 1970s from Michigan. “I had always lived relatively comfortably but one circumstance after another piled up.” The downturn in the economy and a rent hike dispute with his landlord led Oviatt in 2009 to close his Castro clothing store All American Boy after 26 years in business. “No matter how much I slashed staff or reduced inventory, I couldn’t make ends meet,” said Oviatt. It took him 12 months to find work, albeit it is not full-time. “I was unemployed for a year. It was really difficult to make ends meet,” he said. Then his partner of 18 years, Roland Espinosa, died due to AIDS complications, and Oviatt had to put their house up for sale in 2011. “I had to sell because of financial issues,” said Oviatt, admitting that he “hurt myself too. I got bad advice and took equity out of the house when I shouldn’t have.” Resolved to remain in the city he has See page 5 >>

Israel’s trans community increases visibility by Heather Cassell

an Francisco LGBT activists had an opportunity to hear directly from a member of Israel’s transgender community for the first time ever during a recent screening of The Man I Am and a discussion about issues in the Middle East country. About 30 people crowded into a small room at Congregation Shar’ar Zahav July 14 to learn about Israel’s transgender community, which has become more vocal in recent years. Elisha “Shuki” Alexander, a 38-year-old selfidentified gay trans boy, and his partner and fellow activist Avi Soffer, a 63-year-old gay man, were on tour of the U.S. as guests of A Wider Bridge, a Bay Area-based organization that connects the U.S. LGBT Jewish and queer Israeli communities. For many years Israel’s transgender community has lived in the shadows and off the radar of the mainstream gay and lesbian community. The transgender community began to slowly become visible in 2008 when it participated in Tel Aviv’s LGBT Pride Parade for the first time, said Alexander. Soffer added that, in recent years, transgender individuals began appearing at organizational meetings and in movies, such as The Man I Am, in which Alexander was one of the five trans men featured. Alexander, who has been a transgender activist for eight years, heads Ma’avarim (translated means Passageways), a grassroots trans organization. After a yearlong sabbatical and becoming romantically involved with Soffer, Alexander has returned to his work with a vision to push for a government identity card and health care for transgender people. While there are many other issues that need to be tackled, Alexander identified these two as being relatively less complicated and easier to work on, he said during a 45-minute discussion with the audience after viewing the hourlong film. One of the subjects in the movie flew to Canada to get the medical treatment that he needed for his transition.

Danny Buskirk

Elisha Alexander, left, and his partner, Avi Soffer, recently visited San Francisco and talked about the increased visibility of the transgender community in Israel.

Alexander wants to change the laws to eliminate confusion by changing the gender on IDs so that genderqueer individuals aren’t placed in an awkward position when applying for an apartment, a job or anything else that requires showing an ID. He also wants to make health care more accessible. While the Israeli government subsidizes hormones and some surgery, accessibility remains an issue for transgender individuals who don’t have money or a privileged background, said Alexander. As the transgender community continues to come out, Israel’s gay and lesbian community has been going through a learning curve that was often painful. Alexander and Soffer experienced difficulties themselves and that affected the larger community, they said. “We were the craziest enemies,” said Soffer as Alexander shook his head in agreement, smiling at Soffer. “I don’t think that I ever said worst things about anybody and vice versa. I learned a lesson. It is based on not knowing.” “Our personal story, we forced this community to come together,” he continued. “And they all come together. It’s funny.”

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Alexander agreed. “There’s a lot of lack of knowledge on both sides,” he said, adding there were presumptions on both sides that both communities continue to work on. Slowly the transgender community is gaining acceptance in the broader Israeli gay and lesbian community, both men said, but in order for transgender individuals to gain wide acceptance laws need to be changed. One of Alexander’s goals on the trip was to identify potential donors, as there isn’t an official transgender organization in Israel, he said. Establishing an official non-governmental organization would help him with his political work lobbying for transgender rights in Israel’s Knesset, the country’s parliament. Soffer, a 35-year veteran LGBT activist, added that it will also take educating politicians about transgender issues. “Without the change in politics it’s not going to happen,” said Soffer. “The politicians have to be involved.”t Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at 00+1415-221-3541, Skype: heather.cassell, or oitwnews@gmail.com.

<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2013

An AIDS Walk to remember

aul Jones, left, was joined by William Brogan and Chris Buchanan as they carried signs remembering those lost to AIDS at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s last AIDS Walk Sunday, July 21 in Golden Gate Park. SFAF reported that more than 25,000 participants raised more than $2.5 million for the foundation and numerous other HIV/AIDS service organizations. Next year Project Inform will be the lead agency for the longtime event.

Jane Philomen Cleland

SF Pride thanks volunteers with party by James Patterson

ven as the San Francisco Pride board of directors celebrated and thanked volunteers and members for a successful Pride festival and parade, questions on governance and the continued absence of CEO Earle Plante from board meetings and community events arose during the annual volunteer and membership appreciation party last weekend. Held Saturday, July 20 in the Rainbow Room of the LGBT Community Center, volunteers and members were greeted not by smiling and appreciative Pride board members but by past board president Joey Cain, who distributed fliers announcing a group called SF Pride Members for Democracy, Accountability and Transparency. According to Cain, the group, which currently has about 30 members, will work to ensure the board of directors will be accountable to the members, the board’s decision making will reflect the highest standards and practices of transparency and open governance, and the board will govern in accordance with its bylaws, policies, and procedures. The group is necessary, according to Cain, “due to ongoing problems and issues with the way the leadership of Pride has been handling the affairs of the organization.” The flier covered six recent issues of poor governance, including rescheduling of required meetings with no explanation, a burdensome membership application process, and the board’s complete lack of knowledge of basic metrics such as the current number of open board seats that will be up for election in September. The group also noted an issue that won’t go away. “The terrible handling of the whole Bradley Manning affair ... [was] so badly handled by Pride ... that it created and inflamed community divisiveness and brought international shame on the organization,” the flier stated. Manning, the gay Army private currently in a court-martial in Maryland for leaking classified government documents, was named a community grand marshal but that honor was rescinded by the board two days later. Whether SF Pride board members knowingly violated the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee’s bylaws to announce, then rescind, Manning’s grand marshal honor may be debated for the foreseeable future. An additional point of concern for the new group was the presence of National Guard recruiters at the Pride festival. The group is concerned

Loren Meissner

Former Pride board president Joey Cain, seen here at last month’s parade, is starting a new group to help make the Pride organization more accountable and transparent.

because the guard and the U.S. military “discriminate against transgender people.” While gays and lesbians can now serve openly in the armed forces, transgender people cannot. Cain also distributed a flier from the group titled “How Many SF Pride Board Member Seats Are Open?” Citing SF Pride’s bylaws, the new accountability group informs readers “nine seats are up for election.” It was not known at press time if SF Pride agreed with the group’s calculation.

Pride party

The volunteer appreciation party itself was a joyful occasion for attendees and board members. President Lisa Williams thanked everyone for helping to make Pride successful. “We couldn’t do it without you,” she said. Plante was absent and no explanation given. Questions immediately arose from members around several of the 11 tables as to Plante’s whereabouts. In addition to Williams, other board members who attended included Vice President Davace Chin, Secretary Lou Fisher, Treasurer David Currie, and Pam Grey, Shaun Harris, and Javarre Cordero Wilson. The event included an assortment of donated foods and beverages, music, gift bags of leftover Pride items, fellowship, awards, and a raffle. Volunteer Shemira Fermon of Antioch, who identifies as bisexual and owns a financial services business in Concord, said she volunteered at the VIP party at City Hall. “I ran my ass off,” she said. She said the appreciation party was “awesome” and it was “nice to meet and to get to know fellow volunteers.” Her girlfriend Cire Harris agreed. One of the first raffle prizes, a round trip flight on Virgin America for anywhere in the continental U.S., was won by straight San Francisco teacher Elizabeth Farrell, 22, who also

volunteered at Pride’s VIP party. Her gay mom was excited for her daughter. “I didn’t think I’d win anything but a free beer,” Farrell said. Lisa Quail shouted “Goodness!” when her ticket number was called for a prize of a week’s stay for two in Cancun, valued at $4,900. “I am going to enjoy this vacation,” she said as she walked away with her prize. Among the many awards distributed, Gene Bidwell received a Commitment Award for 13 years with SF Pride. As the party drew to a close, John Caldera, a nominee for the board of directors, was overheard talking with Currie about Plante’s continued noshow at board meetings and other events. “He is paid to attend to these meetings and he’s not present. Not acceptable,” Caldera told Currie. Currie told the Bay Area Reporter that raffle prizes were donated by sponsors. He then gave the B.A.R. a “preliminary financial report,” that had been requested by Caldera at the rescheduled July 16 SF Pride board meeting. “We had a record year financially,” Currie said. He mentioned no figures. “All our categories were up over the previous year. There is nothing we are trying to hide. All is good.” He said he hoped he would be re-elected treasurer. Out of the blue Currie added, “If you want to credit anybody for saving Pride, credit Lisa Williams.” Williams said she had been on the board seven years and president for three years. “Across the board we had great success with Pride this year,” Williams said.t Members interested in joining the accountability group can email sfpridemember@yahoo.com for more information.

Community News>>

July 25-31, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 3

TLC expands to Oakland by Seth Hemmelgarn

s it expands, a Bay Area nonprofit that works with the transgender community has moved its headquarters to the East Bay. Transgender Law Center, which had been based in the Flood Building in downtown San Francisco, moved last week to 1629 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 400, in Oakland. The nonprofit will maintain an office in San Francisco. “Transgender Law Center has expanded in recent years,” TLC Executive Director Masen Davis said in response to emailed questions. “We have more staff, volunteers, and clients than ever, and we no longer fit in our Flood Building offices.” Additionally, said Davis, commercial leases have increased “dramatically” since TLC negotiated its lease, and if the agency had stayed at its Flood offices, rent would have gone up about $10 per square foot. “We looked extensively for other office spaces in San Francisco, and could not find an affordable space that could accommodate our staff and volunteers,” he said. “The financial difference between Oakland and San Francisco equaled a staff person. From a mission perspective, it made sense to open a new office in Oakland while also maintain a base in San Francisco.” The center’s work includes changing laws and policies and providing legal assistance to transgender people who face discrimination. TLC occupied about 1,900 square feet at the Flood Building at $33 per square foot. In Oakland, where it has a five-year lease, the nonprofit has approximately 3,400 square feet for about $24 a square foot. The agency is negotiating a lease at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street. Starting in August, TLC anticipates “that we’ll have an attorney located on site most days,” said Davis. Initially, the nonprofit will occupy space in the lobby that the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus formerly used as a box office. “This should provide convenient access for San Francisco community members seeking our services,” said Davis. “Over time, we hope to take on more space at the center as it becomes available.” He said the move to Oakland wouldn’t impact most clients, “especially given how much of our support is provided via phone and the Internet.” The move will allow TLC “to provide timely and sustainable support to the more than 2,500 people who contact us each year” by allowing the agency to work with more volunteers and giving staff “a bit more breathing room,” he added. At the Flood Building, four to five people had been working in offices originally designed for one person. The center has a budget of about $1.25 million and 12 staff. In addition to getting new office space, the agency has hired two new staff members. Kris Hayashi, 38, has joined TLC as deputy director and Sasha Buchert has been selected as staff attorney. Hayashi, who identifies as queer and transgender, has been active in social, racial and economic justice organizing for over 20 years. For the last 10, he’s served as the executive director/co-director of the Audre Lorde Project, an organizing center based in New York City. He said he’s “really excited” to “be at a place that’s really advancing work for trans communities

Jane Philomen Cleland

TLC Executive Director Mason Davis

here in California and nationally.” He started at TLC a month ago. Buchert is joining TLC from Basic Rights Oregon, the state’s chief LGBT advocacy organization, where she most recently worked as the transgender policy organizer. Buchert hasn’t yet started work at TLC and didn’t respond to a Facebook message Tuesday, July 23. The non-profit has an opening for a coordinator to support the national Trans Advocacy Network and coordinate TLC programs such as the agency’s leadership summit.

Priced out of SF

Davis said he and others at TLC have “have been struck by how many San Francisco nonprofits have moved all or many staff to the East Bay,” signifying that many nonprofits and their staffers “are getting priced out of the city,” he said. “I hope the city looks at this issue seriously,” said Davis. “Nonprofits provide important jobs and support for the residents of San Francisco, and the city loses when nonprofits are priced out. I urge the supervisors to consider ways to create more sustainable spaces for nonprofits to survive and flourish in the city.” Similar sentiments were expected to be at the heart of a panel discussion held Tuesday night at the San Francisco Public Library: “Sky high rents, disappearing non-profits.” Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, executive director of Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project, was set to be one of the panelists. In an interview this week, Griffin-Gracy said a rent increase was behind TGIJP’s move to Oakland in April. The agency, which among other work aims to assist low-income transgender women who are in prison, is now sharing space with Transgender Resources and Advocacy Center for Youth, a program of AIDS Project East Bay. TGIJP had been paying $1,400 a month in San Francisco and the agency is now paying half that. Griffin-Gracy didn’t know how much square footage her agency had in San Francisco, “but it was pretty big.” The new space is about half the size, but it’s big enough to meet the agency’s needs, since it can make use of AIDS Project space. “It’s a good arrangement for us,” she said. However, she expressed some concern for San Francisco-based clients. “A lot of people don’t cross that bridge” or take BART to Oakland, which is “like a foreign country” to many, and vice versa, she said. However, Griffin-Gracy travels “at least once every other week” to “see the girls” who are in San Francisco, she said. TGIJP has a budget of about $75,000.t

Clean up the Plaza • Seguridad para la Plaza

Thank You Northeast Mission Business Association Mission Creek Merchants Association Valencia Corridor Merchants Association

and all of the Mission business owners, property owners, tenants, BART riders and shoppers who have already signed the “Clean Up the Plaza” petition. In the next weeks, we will deliver the thousands of signatures to City Officials to demand that something be done to make the 16th and Mission Plaza a safe and pleasurable place for our neighborhood, families and visitors.

We need your help. If you have not yet signed the petition, please visit our website and do it now. Thanks again! Gil Chavez, Organizer

Together we can change it.

www.cleanuptheplaza.com www.seguridadparalaplaza.com

4 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2013

<< Community News

t LGBT shelter set for hearing by Seth Hemmelgarn

proposed LGBT-friendly homeless shelter in San Francisco is set to go before the city’s planning commission for approval on permits, according to backers of the long-delayed project. Wendy Phillips, executive director of Dolores Street Community Services, the nonprofit that would run the shelter, said permits related to the site are expected to be up for approval at the commission’s August 15 meeting. “Providing everything goes well with the permits,” construction could start in September or October, said Phillips. The goal is to open the space by January. Dolores Street already runs a shelter at the site, which is at 1050 South Van Ness Avenue and is planned as a mixed-gender, 24-bed space. Work to establish the LGBTfriendly shelter began not long after a Board of Supervisors committee hearing that gay Supervisor David Campos held in March 2010 in which LGBTs testified about harassment in the city’s shelters. Since then, there have been several hurdles to establishing the proposed shelter. At one point, Phillips and others learned that her agency’s existing shelter didn’t have the permit to operate as such. Other issues involved in expanding the site have included renovating bathrooms and installing partitions. The designated space is in a second floor section that’s been used as a classroom. Backers also struggled to raise $100,000 to cover rehabilitation costs. The pace picked up when Bevan Dufty, the gay director of the city’s Housing Opportunity, Partnerships and Engagement program, stepped in. Among other contributions, the Haas Jr. Fund gave a $30,000 grant, and Phillips recently said a city community development block grant filled in the remaining fundraising gap. As of February, Swinerton Builders had agreed to become the pro bono construction management partner to complete the renovations leading to opening the space and sent an estimator to work with a Dolores Street staffer, among other assistance. A call to the firm’s San Francisco office Tuesday, July 23 went unanswered. Phillips has estimated the city’s Human Services Agency has added $150,000 a year for the operation of the LGBT shelter space “once it’s up

Pete Thoshinsky

Father River Sims prepares socks for distribution to homeless people in the Polk neighborhood on a recent Sunday evening.

and running” to Dolores Street’s existing shelter budget. The planning commission will be reviewing Dolores Street’s request for a conditional use permit to cover the existing shelter and reworking the site for the LGBT-welcoming space, and variances related to rear yard space and bike parking. “We’re asking to not have to meet those requirements because of the limited space we have at the site, and because we want to maximize sleeping areas,” said Phillips. It isn’t known yet what recommendation planning department staff will offer of the requests. “My assumption is they’re going to recommend what we’re asking for, but they’re still in the process of preparing for the hearing,” Phillips said. Planning department spokeswoman Joanna Linsangan wasn’t able to comment for this story because the project’s lead planner wasn’t available. In a statement this week, Campos said, “An LGBT shelter in the city has been a long time coming. San Francisco has been a world leader in the LGBT movement but we have at times failed to protect the members of our community that are most vulnerable. After many years of hard work from community activists we are close to providing a safe space for LGBT folks in need.”

Many homeless LGBTs

Progress on the shelter comes in the wake of the Human Services Agency recently releasing data that show 29 percent of the city’s homeless population identified themselves as LGBTQ in a January survey. Of the 6,436 homeless adults

counted overall, about 47 percent were residing in shelters, residential treatment, or other facilities, while the rest were on the streets without shelter, according to the agency. There are people who live on the streets, LGBT and otherwise, who don’t want to stay at shelters, citing concerns about abuse, theft, and other fears, but Phillips said, “From our understanding, there is a tremendous need” for the LGBT space “just based on folks who already go to existing programs.” She and others “don’t anticipate a huge need to do outreach,” she said. River Sims, a gay independent Catholic priest and director of Temenos Catholic Worker, is familiar with the population. Several times a week, Sims reaches out to homeless people in the areas of Haight and Polk streets, as he’s been doing for almost 19 years. He frequently gives out food, socks, condoms, and syringes. Socks are by far the most popular item – on a recent trip to the Haight, people practically chased him down for them. “This is what I’ve always wanted to do,” said Sims. “It’s my calling.” The people he encounters are those that, for the most part, nobody else wants to work with, he added. Sims’s style of dress resembles many of the people he talks to in the street. He has a tattoo of the Virgin of Guadalupe on his left forearm and wears a studded leather wristband, along with a knit cap with a pot leaf patch, sandals, and a hoodie. In the Haight, Sims talked to many young people who don’t openly identify as LGBT – at least, not with a reporter around. But Sims, who’s known many of the youth for years, indicated See page 15 >>

Duboce Park hosts movie night compiled by Cynthia Laird

ovie night returns to Duboce Park Saturday, July 27 with the sci-fi classic The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (PG, 1978), starring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy. The movie starts at 8:30 p.m. and will be preceded at 8:15 by a few shorts created by visual arts students at the Harvey Milk Recreation Center. The film, set in San Francisco, is a psychological thriller that was well-received by critics when it was released. Movie night is sponsored by Friends of Duboce Park and San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department. Popcorn, hot chocolate, and other snacks will be available at the Friends’ popular refreshment stand.

The first outdoor movie night in Duboce Park was in 2011. Movie nights were held indoors in 2004 and 2005. All featured movies filmed in San Francisco. Mark Scheuer with Friends of Duboce Park said the event is free and that people should bring their own blankets and chairs. The park is easily accessible from the NJudah Muni line; other busses are within a few blocks of the park. For more information or to volunteer, contact Friends of Duboce Park President Doug Woo at doug@friendsofdubocepark.org.

Stonewall Dems meeting

The East Bay Stonewall Democrats will hold its general membership meeting Wednesday, July 31 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Joyce Gordon Art Gallery, 406 14th Street in Oakland.

The meeting will include a panel with Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, plaintiffs in the federal Proposition 8 case, and Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Self-defense classes for LGBTs

Three local groups are holding self-defense classes for LGBTs in the coming week. First up, the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club and Renaissance Entrepreneurship center, in conjunction with Universal Martial Arts Academy, are hosting a queer self-defense training Sunday, July 28 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at El Rio, 3158 Mission Street. The cost is $15 per person and includes admission to Salsa Sunday. Organizers said that the session will cover effective and practical self-defense strategies. People aged 21 and over are welcome. To register, visit http://www.tinyurl. See page 17 >>

t <<

Community News >>

LGBT homeless

From page 1

called home for four decades, Oviatt turned to the AIDS Housing Alliance earlier this year for assistance. “They’ve been a lifesaver. But even they can’t get through the bureaucracy involved,” said Oviatt. “Without them, I would be in my car all the time.” The nonprofit was able to land him a room in a single-room-occupancy hotel but it was “a pigsty,” so Oviatt moved out. In May a studio with bathroom became available in the West Hotel in the Tenderloin that Oviatt decided to apply for through a rental assistance program. But he has had to navigate through a byzantine system at both the city’s housing authority and two affordable housing providers where paperwork is repeatedly lost and missteps delay the approval process. He is “quite confident,” however, that he will be able to move into the unit by August 1. “It is one thing after another. By the good graces of co-workers and friends, I can couch dive for a time. But I don’t want to wear out my welcome,” said Oviatt. “At least I am not sleeping literally on the sidewalk because I am sleeping in my vehicle.” While it has long been known that a large percentage of homeless youth in San Francisco are LGBT, new data is showing that alarming numbers of LGBT adults in the city are also struggling to find housing or are at risk of losing their homes. In late June the biennial San Francisco Homeless Point-In-Time Count and Survey was released and, for the first time, included statistics on LGBT people. The 2013 report found that out of a total of 7,350 homeless people, more than one in four (29 percent) identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or “other” for a total of 2,132. Based on the report’s findings and estimates that at least 94,234 LGBT people live in San Francisco, LGBT housing activists estimate that 2.3 percent are homeless. And they predict that LGBT city residents are 258 percent as likely to become homeless as the general population. Brian Basinger, who founded the AIDS Housing Alliance and now oversees three additional homeless programs under the umbrella agency named the Q Foundation, hopes that the data on LGBT homeless people in the city will “finally” serve as a “wakeup call within the LGBT community and within the San Francisco leadership on the disparate needs” of LGBT residents and people living with HIV and AIDS for housing services. “Those of us in the anti-displacement and homeless prevention world have been trying to highlight the mechanisms whereby the LGBT community especially becomes homeless and the need to do something about it,” said Basinger. “These results, I think, really crystalize what we were talking about.” Asked about the report’s findings, gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener told the Bay Area Reporter that “it really underlines the need to create more affordable housing not just for youth but for others as well” in the city. “I think it is a reminder that people in our community are homeless and at risk for becoming homeless and we have to make sure we are helping them to remain housed and getting housing for those who need it,” said Wiener. Two other reports released in recent weeks have demonstrated that LGBT seniors and older adults living with HIV or AIDS in San Francisco are particularly at risk of becoming homeless. A study commissioned by the city’s LGBT Aging Policy Task Force, which surveyed 616 LGBT city residents aged 60 to 92 years old, found that those respondents who live alone, have lower incomes, and are less educated “are at elevated risk for housing instability.” The study found that while 57 percent of older San Francisco resi-

Jane Philomen Cleland

Tim Oviatt

dents own a home, just 41 percent of LGBT participants did. A majority, 54 percent, are renters compared to 41 percent of older adults in the city who rent. And while 57 percent of adults in San Francisco are “very confident” they will remain housed, the study found that only 32 percent of the LGBT participants did. “There has been a sense for a long time that LGBT people are at greater risk of homelessness,” said out lesbian lead researcher Karen I. FredriksenGoldsen, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Washington and director of the Institute for Multigenerational Health who oversaw the study. A report based on the responses from 116 people living with HIV aged 50 and older in the San Francisco area found that “a significant minority of participants” had “unstable or marginal housing.” Those living in SRO hotels or who were homeless comprised nearly 15 percent of the sample. Loren Meissner, 60, who is HIVpositive and conducted the research as part of his master’s project at San Francisco State University, noted in the report that a majority of those surveyed rely on public assistance or public disability such as Social Security SSI (Supplemental Security Income) or SSD (Social Security Disability) to make ends meet. “These income sources do not have an allowance which adequately matches the costs associated with living in expensive cost of living cities and nearby suburbs,” wrote Meissner. With the majority of people in the city living with AIDS and HIV now in their 50s, the bulk of which are gay men, their risk of becoming homeless will grow as they hit retirement age and their income levels drop, predicted Basinger. “A tidal wave is coming,” he said. “It is actually already hitting. We are completely unprepared for it.” Gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos, who did not respond to a request for comment for this story, has held ad-hoc meetings about the issue over the last year with both LGBT leaders and city staffers. And the mayor and board did allocate some specific funding in the new budget for fiscal year 2013-2014 to address LGBT youth homelessness. But City Hall has yet to announce any initiatives designed to primarily focus on LGBT homeless issues similar to its creation of the LGBT Aging Policy Task Force. “We do have some proposals around preventing homelessness in general for the board but they are not specific to LGBT people,” said Wiener. LGBT housing advocates are calling on both city officials and LGBT agencies to devote more attention and funding toward solving homelessness within the LGBT community. Up to now, they contend, neither the city nor LGBT nonprofits have done enough to address the issue. “I think, basically, we need to think tank this and treat it as a crisis,” queer housing activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca, who works for the Housing Rights Committee, told the Bay Area Reporter. “We have poured millions into gay marriage and look at where it’s gotten us as a community. We need to do the same for those in our community in need. We can’t count on the city to fund everything. We have to do it for ourselves, too. Like we did with AIDS.”t

July 25-31, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

<< Open Forum

6 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2013

Volume 43, Number 30 July 25-31, 2013 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Thomas E. Horn Bob Ross (Founder, 1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador • Erin Blackwell Roger Brigham • Scott Brogan Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • David Duran Raymond Flournoy • David Guarino Peter Hernandez • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Matthew Kennedy • David Lamble Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Elliot Owen• Paul Parish • James Patterson Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Bob Roehr • Philip Ruth • Donna Sachet Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Ed Walsh • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION T. Scott King ONLINE PRODUCTION Jay Cribas PHOTOGRAPHERS Danny Buskirk 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 ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Scott Wazlowski 415.861.5019 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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Homelessness is an LGBT issue

recent city study revealed that nearly 30 percent of San Francisco’s homeless population identifies as LGBT. For the first time the Homeless Point in Time Count and Survey asked for the sexual orientation and gender identity of the city’s 7,350 homeless persons. We’re glad that the report included the questions – all city departments are moving in the direction of asking folks how they identify – and the answers reveal what housing advocates have been saying for years: that homelessness and housing issues are queer issues. Local officials need to refocus their attention and effort toward making San Francisco a more affordable city for lower and middle classes. Currently, new developments must set aside a certain percentage of units for sale below market rate, or pay in-lieu fees that become part of the housing trust fund for other projects. There are not nearly enough BMR units or adequate money in the trust fund (which took the place of the redevelopment agency) to meet demand. For example, in the Bay Area Reporter’s article last week on new housing developments in the upper Market area, it was reported that there will be roughly 1,000 units of market rate housing, but only 228 new BMR units. Openhouse’s proposed affordable housing project for LGBT seniors plans for just 110 units – and it hasn’t even broken ground yet. It’s estimated that there are between 18,000 to 20,000 LGBT seniors living in San Francisco, though not all are homeless or living in poverty. The point is, the number of units being built is far below what’s actually needed, whether it’s for seniors or others. Building BMR housing isn’t the only answer. Housing advocates point to a housing shortage for people earning 0 to 30 percent of the area median income, which is an even lower income rate than those who are eligible for BMR units. In short, housing is needed for folks who have no income, those who are homeless, those who make minimum wage, and those on SSI – the most needy among us. Everyone seems to want homeless people off the street, but the reality is that there is not enough housing for them now. And city shelters, while good for the very short term,

are not a solution. For LGBT folks, the shelters oftentimes aren’t even an option because of anti-gay and anti-transgender bias. That was documented at a City Hall hearing years ago and the one thing to come out of that hearing, a shelter for LGBT homeless people, isn’t open yet due to funding, permit, and other issues. Housing advocates suggest that a one-stop service center could be opened in the Castro. This is a modest proposal that area residents and merchants should support. It could provide beds, meals, showers, a jobs bank, and drop-in space. We can hear the howls of outrage now from people who would rather that the homeless be rounded up and deposited somewhere else in the city. But as long as queer youth – and LGBT adults – continue to flock to San Francisco, the city should provide basic services, and a site in the Castro would certainly be utilized. If the San Francisco AIDS Foundation can raise $10 million to renovate a storefront for its new health center – in a building it doesn’t

even own – surely a few million dollars can be raised to get a homeless center off the ground. Finally, increased rental assistance is desperately needed to keep people in their homes. Study after study has shown that people living with HIV/AIDS, for instance, are much more likely to adhere to their medication regimens if they are housed. But you don’t have to have HIV/AIDS or any other health condition to know that you feel better – mentally and physically – when you’re housed. There are, of course, some homeless people who refuse any offer of help. While the city can’t force someone to go to a shelter or into subsidized housing, we’re confident that a pilot program would be filled to capacity. Good starting points would be securing a location for a Castro service center and for the city’s housing and homeless experts to identify sites where lower income housing could be situated. San Francisco prides itself on being the city that knows how. The homeless issue has vexed politicians for decades, but it doesn’t mean the city should ever stop trying to address and solve the needs of its residents.t

Together we can make Castro safer by Scott Wiener

y any measure, the crime situation in the Castro isn’t acceptable. On a regular basis, we hear about neighbors and visitors being robbed – often at gunpoint – beaten, stabbed, and otherwise victimized. Some of the crimes appear to be anti-LGBT hate crimes, some not. Whatever the motivation and whatever form they take, they need to stop, and we need to work to reduce violence in our neighborhood. While living in a city always entails the possibility of crime, we should not have to be fearful walking through our own neighborhood. The Castro isn’t alone in this trend, particularly robberies. Throughout the city – and in other cities – robberies are up, in significant part because of the lucrative market in stolen electronic devices. While we all need to be more careful about walking around on our phones – and I include myself in that category – even if you don’t have your phone out, criminals may assume that you have one in your bag. Our district attorney, George Gascón, and our chief of police, Greg Suhr, have been national leaders in calling on the cellphone industry to enable phones to be “bricked” (permanently disabled) upon being stolen. This technology would drain the swamp for stolen phones and reduce the incentive to commit these robberies. Of course, the Castro is different from other neighborhoods in many respects, including our continuing history of gay bashings. The Castro also hosts large street events, such as Pink Saturday, which has had public safety challenges. (We all owe the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence a big “thank you” for managing Pink Saturday year after year, with all the challenges it brings.) Our police department works very hard to address these crimes aggressively, but the department is short-staffed. Full police staffing in San Francisco is 1,971 officers, but for years, policymakers at City Hall, during bad budget times, failed to fund police academy

classes, and as a result the department shrunk to approximately 1,700 officers. This 300-officer shortage has profound citywide impacts, including fewer officers walking beats and longer response times. During my first year on the Board of Supervisors in 2011, as a member of the budget committee, I joined with Supervisors David Chiu and Carmen Chu to force a police academy class into the budget – the first academy class in years. Since then, the mayor and the Board have agreed to fund three academy classes a year until we reach full police staffing, probably in 2017 or 2018. Until that point, the police department and the community need to be very smart in our use of resources and work closely with one another. The department needs to continue and grow its focus on the Castro and surrounding neighborhoods. The Castro is divided into three police precincts – Mission, Park, and Northern stations. We share each station with neighborhoods whose public safety needs are significant, including gang problems. We share Mission Station with the Mission, Northern Station with the Western Addition, and Park Station with the Haight and Western Addition. The Castro, however, has public safety needs as well, and we must work closely with the police to ensure that the neighborhood is receiving the focus it deserves. The police have done significant work in the Castro, including tracking crime trends real-time and deploying officers to address those needs. The department uses plainclothes officers regularly, so not seeing officers in uniform doesn’t mean that officers aren’t in the neighborhood. But, the department needs to do more. Yet, it’s not all on the police. We, as a community, need to look out for our neighbors and ourselves. Perhaps the most important thing we can do is report every single crime, even if you think it’s not worth reporting or that nothing will happen. Minor assaults,

failed robberies, auto break-ins – we must report all of them. Even if nothing happens and even if an officer doesn’t respond, these reports go into the department’s computer tracking system and allow police to make informed decisions about officer deployment. We also all need to be involved. Every block should be organized into a neighborhood watch. SF SAFE (http://www.sfsafe.org) is a city-funded organization that trains neighbors on how to avoid crime, keep our homes safe, and organize effectively as a block. Castro Community on Patrol (http://www.castropatrol.org), which we organized in 2006 after a series of street rapes of gay men, does great work patrolling and educating, and it needs more volunteers. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have an innovative program called Stop the Violence (http://www.thesisters. org) to increase safety awareness and create safe spaces. This Wednesday, July 31 at 6:30 p.m. at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center, I’ll be convening a Castro-area public safety forum. Chief Suhr and District Attorney Gascón will personally be there, as will our neighborhood’s district captains and community groups. The forum will present an opportunity for the police, at the highest levels, to tell the community what the department is doing to improve our safety, to receive feedback, and for all of us to discuss what we can do to help. The Castro’s crime situation is a major challenge, but we don’t need to be helpless. Working together with law enforcement and our neighbors, we can make our community a safer place.t Scott Wiener represents District 8 on the Board of Supervisors. In 2006, Wiener co-founded Castro Community on Patrol with other neighborhood activists. EVRC is located at 100 Collingwood Street.

Letters >>

Suicide is a viable choice

July 25-31, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

I take issue with the tone of the article, “LGBT seniors struggle with suicide” [July 11], that suicide is such an awful act and at such an “alarming” rate when, in fact, it is the most sensible of all acts a person can take given the circumstances. Think of assisted suicide. Everyone has the right to determine their life, including when to end it. To imply that all of life’s circumstances are to be endured is to condemn some people to lives of unspeakable horror. If we would keep the holy books to the realm of fantasies where they belong, we can look with compassion on the trials and tribulations of humankind and understand that sometimes suicide is the right choice. The closest friend of my life, 70 plus years old, was di-

agnosed with cancer 15 long, horrible months ago with less than a 5 percent chance of survival. He wanted to determine his own end but his Catholic wife wouldn’t let him, or better said, he deferred to her. He endured five horrible operations, had one good month in the 15, and died in horrible circumstances. His last words to me were, “I wish I had.” I trust the LGBT Aging Policy Task Force has included assisted suicide in its agenda, along with the Board of Supervisors. San Francisco should be a haven for assisted suicides given its history of progressive ideas and understanding for those in the minority. I was a volunteer at San Francisco Suicide Prevention in the 1970s. Mike Giles Santa Rosa, California

Gay CA court clerks make history by Matthew S. Bajko

n what is believed to be historic appointments for California’s state court system, out married gay men are serving as clerks to the state’s Supreme Court and to one of the six appellate courts. Frank A. McGuire is the first openly LGBT person to be the court administrator and clerk of the Supreme Court of California. On July 2 he celebrated his one-year anniversary of being appointed to the position. It came a day after Kevin J. Lane became the official clerk and administrator of the Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District based in San Diego. He had been serving as acting clerk administrator since February and is believed to be the first known LGBT clerk at the appellate level in the state. “I think it is a testament to how far our community has come as a community,” McGuire, 52, told the Bay Area Reporter earlier this month during an interview at the court’s offices inside the state building in San Francisco. “It is important to see LGBT people in positions of power because we got here on our merits.” Speaking by telephone, Lane, 44, who earned a Master of Science degree in criminal justice from CSU-Long Beach, added that their appointments signal that, “sexual orientation is not the defining issue of a person.” Nonetheless, the two have helped implement pro-gay policies within the state court system as members of the advisory committee to the judicial council. Lane served as chair of the sexual orientation fairness sub-committee, which advocated for collecting data on the number of LGBT judges in California. “The nice thing about these committees is they provide judicial education in areas that wouldn’t otherwise be looked at, such as LGBT issues,” said Lane. “We did a bench card for judges on LGBT elders resources, as the services they need may be different than those needed by straight seniors. We did the same thing with LGBT youth and are currently working on a guide for family law cases.” Having spent their professional careers in the legal field, both men marveled at how quickly LGBT rights have been advanced through court victories. McGuire recalled how in 1986, three weeks after he graduated Stanford Law School, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick upholding anti-gay sodomy laws. “It was devastating for our community,” he said. Yet, the court overturned the Bowers decision at “warp speed,” said McGuire, with its ruling in the Lawrence v. Texas case in 2003. A decade later it extended federal

Rick Gerharter

Courtesy Kevin J. Lane

California Supreme Court clerk Frank A. McGuire

California Court of Appeal Clerk Kevin J. Lane

marriage benefits to same-sex couples with its ruling last month in the United States v. Windsor case on the same day it allowed same-sex marriages to resume in California. At work monitoring the Internet for the court’s opinions in the two cases, Lane said several of the appellate justices he works with were also eagerly awaiting the rulings. “It was nice to see their interest in the issue,” he said. The ruling striking down a key section of the federal Defense of Marriage Act positively impacts both clerks. In 2008 Lane legally married his partner of 20 years, Jeffrey Love, an information technology analyst, whom he lives with in La Mesa. On October 12 of that year McGuire married his husband, Trevor R. Manning, a local interior designer, whom he lives with in San Francisco. Because they oversee such administrative duties as payroll and medical benefits, they were well aware of how DOMA negatively impacted their and other LGBT married state employees’ incomes due to the increased federal taxes they paid out because their marriages were not recognized until now. “It is just frustrating handing out paychecks to everyone else knowing yours is less. Why should our relationship be any less than someone else’s?” asked Lane. McGuire joined the crowd at San Francisco’s City Hall the morning of Wednesday, June 26 waiting to learn how the court had ruled in the DOMA case and the lawsuit seeking to strike down California’s Proposition 8, the voter-approved constitutional amendment banning samesex marriage. “For five years I was feeling unequally treated under the law. Then at 11:45 a.m. that day I was meeting with the justices and for the first time I thought I am really married now,” said McGuire. Because the legal arguments over Prop 8 have yet to be finalized – the California Supreme Court is

once again being asked to halt the same-sex weddings taking place – McGuire must be careful about discussing that litigation publicly. He is responsible for seeing that the decisions in the matter are properly distributed to the public and news media tracking the court fight. For instance, McGuire’s name can be seen stamped on the onepage, two-sentence decision handed down Tuesday by the California Supreme Court denying a request to temporarily halt the same-sex marriages. He has no involvement, however, in the court’s deliberations in the cases. “Clerks don’t get involved or asked what do you think of this case. It is more on the mechanics of a case,” he said. “I’ve never had a discussion with the justices on the merits of a case.” They do separate their work life from their personal lives. Prior to his current job, McGuire served as the managing attorney to the administrative presiding justice of the state Court of Appeal, First Appellate District. He was there in 2006 when Presiding Judge William R. McGuiness and Justice Joanne C. Parrilli, since retired, overturned a lower court ruling that declared the state’s anti-gay marriage laws were unconstitutional, reasoning it was up to the legislature and not the courts to determine. “Justice McGuiness was my boss for half my career. It was not a personal decision on his part,” he said. Despite that ruling, McGuire still considered them to be his friends and invited both justices to his wedding two years later. “McGuiness was there with his wife attending our wedding having a grand time,” he recalled. Of the 10 justices on his bench, Lane said they also “don’t discuss opinions on cases.” The court employees, however, do “know them as people. On the outside we do interact with them a lot. We see them as people and not by the positions they take or by the job they do.”t Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8615019 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar. com.

<< Travel

8 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2013

Toronto, Ontario wine country a perfect pairing for LGBT travelers by Ed Walsh

y first day in Toronto earlier this month was not exactly a chamber of commerce day. I flew nonstop from San Francisco International on Air Canada and arrived mid-afternoon on Monday, July 8.

I checked into the Intercontinental Hotel in the upscale and hip Yorkville neighborhood and was getting ready to explore the city when it started to rain. The rain turned to a downpour that kept up for about two hours. I stayed inside and caught up

with emails while I watched the local news coverage of the “Monday Monsoon.” Subways were halted. Some people had to be rescued from stranded trains, streets flooded, and thousands lost power. After they added it up, July 8, 2013 turned out to be the rainiest day in Toronto’s history with nearly five inches of precipitation. When it was all over that night, and for the next few days, I was treated to the typical warm, sunny weather that makes Toronto very popular with tourists this time of year. And when it comes to being LGBT-welcoming, Canada’s largest city has long been very warm. Toronto proudly boasts that it has the largest Pride parade in North America with an estimated 1.2 million attendees. With crowd estimates being a very inexact science, some cities would dispute the figures, but no one would argue that Toronto is one of the gay-friendliest cities in the world. Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario, which was the first jurisdiction in North America to recognize same-sex marriages 10 years ago. Next year, Toronto will be the undisputed gay capital of the world when it hosts World Pride. In preparation, a dozen murals will be installed around the city’s gayborhood and several parking spaces will be turned into parklets, similar to what San Francisco has already done in parts of the city. You don’t have to wait for World Pride to be part of a crowd in Toronto. The city expects tens of thousands to jam the area for a festive and very safe Halloween. Toronto hosts a series of events in the days leading up to Halloween that it calls “Halloweek.”

Ed Walsh

A ferry heads to the Toronto Islands with the city’s skyline in the background.

Like San Francisco, Toronto has its own version of the wine country a little more than an hour outside of the city. The wine country also has a waterfall. You may have heard of it – Niagara Falls. Like fine wine and food pairings, Toronto and the Niagara Wine Region make a great LGBT-friendly pairing for visitors. When it comes to LGBT rights, Toronto was well behind San Francisco and other big U.S. cities but it has more than caught up. The city’s version of the Stonewall riots was on February 5, 1981 when Toronto police arrested more than 300 gay men for being in gay bathhouses. That event helped galvanize the city’s docile LGBT community to organize and fight for its rights. The city’s first gay parade was held that same year. Sadly, a little over a year later, the city’s gay community would have to fight another battle – AIDS, which took a heavy toll. Toronto’s Castro is the Church Wellesley neighborhood, also known as simply the Gay Village, Queer Village, or the gayborhood. As you might have guessed, the center of the gay village is at the intersection of Church and Wellesley streets. That’s where you will find the biggest concentration of gay bars and nightclubs, the most famous of which is Woodys/Sailors, made famous as the setting for the Queer as Folk TV series. The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives in the village is both an archive and a museum of gay history of Canada and beyond. It is the second-largest LGBT archive in the world after One National Gay and Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles. The archive is open to the public 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. Toronto is home to the oldest gay bookstore in the world. Glad Day Bookstore in the village has been in continuous operation since 1970. It was founded with the Body Politic gay newspaper, which became Xtra in 1984. Toronto’s LGBTs are branching

out beyond the Gay Village. The socalled Queer West Village, officially known as the West Queen West Village, has had an established LGBT presence for more than a decade. Newer LGBT-popular neighborhoods include Leslieville and the Junction. The Church Wellesley area is home to the city’s LGBT center on 519 Church Street, the Church Street Community Center, a.k.a. the 519. It is both well maintained and well used with a variety of community activities. Its cafe-style restaurant, Fabarnak, is widely regarded as one of the best in the city. It is famous for its “cube” meals, unique food portions served up in partitioned rectangular trays. The city’s AIDS memorial is in a park just to the north of the center. It contains a series of columns inscribed with names of people who have been claimed by the disease. Church and Wellesley is also where you will find a statue in tribute to Alexander Wood, a 19th century city official who owned the land where the Village is now. He is believed to have been a gay man who was disgraced for his work in a rape investigation. He examined the genitals of men suspected of the crime for signs of a scratch that the victim said she made on her attacker. Wood was accused of examining the men for his own sexual satisfaction. A panel on the side of the statue explains the controversy with depiction of the examination. Besides being one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world, Toronto is also one of the most diverse places on the planet. More than half of the city’s residents were born outside of the country. That diversity shows in the city’s neighborhoods and ethnic restaurants. Toronto boasts at least three Chinatowns. Toronto is one of the fastest growing cities in the world as a result of immigration and the city absorbing some of the surroundSee page 11 >>

Community News>>

July 25-31, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

Top Chef brings Juhu Beach Club to Oakland by Heather Cassell

loggers and foodies followed Bravo TV’s Top Chef contestant Preeti Mistry like she was an unattainable catch for years. They followed the out lesbian’s pop-up restaurant that showed up in San Francisco neighborhoods like South of Market and the Mission and checked in regularly about her restaurant’s official opening. To their delight, they got their wish this spring, when Juhu Beach Club opened in Oakland’s hip and trendy Temescal neighborhood. Since opening it’s been a hit as the neighborhood’s only Indian restaurant and is part of new food tours featuring the culinary neighborhood’s delights. Juhu Beach Club, named after a famed beach in Mumbai, India, was a long time coming for Mistry. The 36-year-old’s first restaurant venture with her family and partner of nearly 18 years, Ann Nadeau, experienced some fits and starts after a successful run as a pop-up restaurant around San Francisco. But finding a permanent home for Mistry’s culinary vision of her take on Indian street food was a challenge. This is not your traditional chicken tikka masala or kati roll Indian restaurant. Nadeau, 39, who co-owns Juhu Beach Club and is the global managing director at the Great Place to Work Institute, created the interior design while Mistry fashioned the menu. “There is nothing that we are trying to do in any traditional way,” said Mistry. “The menu items are my creations, my inspiration.” The pink wallpaper with monkeys harkens back to Mumbai, where her family originated and the

Toronto

From page 8

ing suburbs. With nearly 2.8 million people, it surpassed Chicago earlier this year as North America’s fourth largest city. Only Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles have more people. Toronto is also one of the theater capitals of the world. It boasts the world’s third largest English-speaking theater scene after London and New York. It also has its own version of Times Square called Yonge-Dundas Square. It is lined with bright colorful signs and one of the city’s TV stations has glass-walled studios overlooking the square. The city’s historic downtown is along the Lake Ontario waterfront. You will find ferries there that will take you over to the Toronto Islands. The islands are mostly made up of landfill from the city’s subway and other construction projects. The gayest part of the islands is Hanlan’s Point, which is one of only two clothing optional beaches in Canada. Gays tend to hang out at the far end of the beach, closest to the small city airport that takes up a section of the islands. The city’s waterfront is also a good showcase of the contrast between the old colonial architecture alongside new buildings, including the iconic CN Tower. The best example of the new and the old can be seen at the Royal Ontario Museum in the Yorkville neighborhood with its stunning modern annex with its slanted glass and steel walls that evoke giant crystal formations. Toronto is undergoing a building boom with 144 condominium projects being built as more people opt to live closer to downtown. Undoubtedly, Toronto’s notorious traffic is making downtown living all the more popular. By the way, don’t rent a car in Toronto. Public tran-

Born in London and raised on

the East Coast, Mistry landed in San Francisco in 1996 when she was 19. It was in San Francisco where she honed her culinary skills that she learned at Le Cordon Bleu in London, working in the kitchens of the De Young Museum and Google. A stint at Bon Appetite Management Company landed her on Top Chef in 2006. She was one of the first chefs of that season to be given the chopping knife, but she charged on after her elimination from the show with testing Juhu Beach Club, her take on Indian street food, as a pop-up restaurant around San Francisco. A former die-hard San Franciscan, she originally planned on bringing the eatery full-time to the city, but things weren’t working out and Oakland continued to beckon. She finally threw in the kitchen towel after a frustrating two-year process and amicably parted ways with her then-business partner and answered the call from Oaktown, the affectionate nickname locals call the East Bay city. By that time, Mistry and Nadeau had decamped from their trendy loft in the city to a four-bedroom Craftsman house in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood. It was an opportunity the couple couldn’t pass up, she said. Many of their friends had made the move a long time ago, she added. “I didn’t lose the city. I’m in the city all of the time. I gained Oakland and Berkeley,” she said, along with the good weather and ethnic and economic diversity. “Our entire community is here,” she said, asking, “Why in the hell did we wait so long?” “Especially, being a queer woman of color I feel like even more so my

sit is good and it is a very walkable city. Toronto also has a good bicycle sharing system. For about $5 a day, you can rent a bike from an automated sidewalk station. You just have to return the bike to another station within 30 minutes to avoid being charged an overtime fee. The City Sightseeing Toronto double-decker bus is a good way to see all the highlights of the city without getting lost. It runs every

15 minutes and you can hop on and off at whatever attraction grabs your fancy. The gay-owned Rainbow High Vacations in the heart of the gay village is an all-purpose travel agency that can set you up with an individual or small group tour of the city that can give you some of the LGBT history of the city mixed in with the overall sights. Rainbow’s website is also a good resource of all things gay

photographs of her parents’ journey artfully placed on the walls creates a living room effect that is cheerful, warm, and friendly. “I’m kind of excited of the fact that it’s seen as feminine,” said Mistry, about the dark wood and leather that dominates many restaurant interiors. “Yes, it’s fucking pink. Deal with that.” Just as much as the walls tell the story of Mistry’s family’s migration from Mumbai to Trinidad to London to Pittsburg to Ohio and finally to California so does the menu. The menu includes Desi Jacks, a sweet, salty, spicy popcorn with peanuts and pistachios, as one of the appetizers; Curryleaf Coriander Shrimp as a main course, and Masala Fries as one of the popular side dishes. The food is affordable starting at $4 for an appetizer up to $15 for an entree. “It is an evolution and it is Indian. There is nothing that is undeniably Indian about the food and the flavors,” said Mistry. “It’s an evolution of something and it speaks to the people who are influenced by other things. People are influenced by things in India and they create new dishes and that’s authentic and so is this.” “It’s my authentic expression and it’s also the experience of a lot of young people who are secondgeneration immigrants,” she added. Mistry’s focus is on creating a value driven “amazing and awesome” restaurant where “people have a good time and the food is great and creative,” she said. Juhu Beach Club is catching on with Oakland residents after the first wave of excitement around its opening in March.

Simmering to perfection

Courtesy Juhu Beach Club

Preeti Mistry, owner and chef of Juhu Beach Club, shows off the many spices she uses in her recipes.

community is here,” continued Mistry. Aside from the good weather, Oakland is brimming with women chefs and restaurateurs and people are starting to take notice. Recently, during an interview about women in the culinary industry in Oakland, Mistry pointed out that half of the women on the reporter’s list were women of color. While she experienced some challenges with opening up Juhu Beach Club, it was nowhere near the obstacles she faced in San Francisco. This time she had her heart set on the Uptown area of Oakland that has emerged as a gay hot spot, but she let that go when everything fell into place at the Temescal location of the former SR24 restaurant. It was move-in ready with just a few decor changes and a swap out of one or two new machines.

she and Nadeau moved when they did as Oakland is experiencing a new renaissance. Talking with her servers she said that some of them are trying to escape the city to move to Oakland. She also has observed that many young people are bypassing San Francisco and moving directly to Oakland. Young people are saying, “I’m trying to move to Oakland. That’s where everything is happening that’s where all of the cool people are,” she said, recalling a conversation with one of her servers. Mistry only hopes more good restaurants open in Oakland. Locals and visitors can get a sampling of Juhu Beach Club’s offerings during the Bites off Broadway street food event in Temescal on Fridays or Sundays during Edible Excursions’ Temescal Tastes tours.t

Oakland rising

For more information, visit http:// www.juhubeachclub.com.

in Toronto (http://www.RainbowHighVacations.com). Rainbow’s owner, Liz Devine, is a walking encyclopedia of gay history as well as up-to-date on what is going on now in the community. One of the city’s most unique attractions is the Bata Shoe Museum. The Bata is designed to look like a giant shoebox and displays include the shoes worn by ancient civilizations, the first sneakers, and famous

celebrity shoes, including platforms worn by Elton John and high tops worn by Justin Bieber. The Art Gallery of Ontario was expanded in 2008 and is one of the largest art museums in North America.

Now Mistry feels fortunate that

Accommodations

The lesbian-owned Gladstone Hotel is a good bet if you want to See page 16 >>

<<Community News

12 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2013

Billy Erb

Drag star Lady Bunny is coming to the Bay Area.

Lady Bunny bounces into SF by Matthew S. Bajko

his bunny has bite. Famed drag queen Lady Bunny, who will blitz northern California next week to promote her new single, has never been shy about speaking her mind. And in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter this week, the legendary New York City nightlife fixture was vocal about her opinions on gay conservatives, Big Apple lesbian mayoral candidate Christine Quinn, and the rightful place of transgender people in LGBT history. “I wish there were more drag queens who did speak out because I think we often have a unique perspective,” said Lady Bunny. She is in the “anyone but Quinn party” in terms of this year’s New York City mayoral race and recently appeared at a fundraiser for candidate Bill de Blasio, the city’s elected public advocate. She also spoke favorably of disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner. “I think she is Bloomberg’s bitch and was instrumental in securing his third term,” said Lady Bunny of Quinn, the current city council speaker, referring to current Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “She is in with big real estate developers so New York is not for New Yorkers anymore.” Seen last month in the HBO documentary The Out List, which featured a number of prominent LGBT people, Lady Bunny joked that her segment’s placement immediately after that of a gay Republican made

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her seem “like a beacon of sense and reason.” Her lambasting conservative gays who complain that media coverage of leather men and drag queens is unrepresentative of the LGBT community drew cheers at a Castro Theatre screening of the film. “I say, guess what, the gay rights movement was not started by people who wore a pink T-shirt one day on gay Pride day and went back to a closeted office job. It was started by drag queens, transsexuals, and street people who were totally flamboyant and lived their lives flamboyantly and didn’t have a conservative place to retreat to and got shit on all the time,” said Lady Bunny. “Don’t ever try to subtract drag queens from gay rights history; you will fail.” She also defended the lesbian protester who heckled first lady Michelle Obama at a recent fundraising event. Lady Bunny said she was dismayed to see many of her friends post critical comments about the outburst on Facebook. “I said, why not? She is protesting being treated a second-class citizen,” she said. “You should get up and get mad.” Uninterested in marriage herself, though she does see the benefits in gaining the right to marry, Lady Bunny nonetheless would like to see the LGBT movement tackle more pocket-book issues. “I would love it if gays could broaden their scope and look at income equality,” she said. “I would See page 16 >>

Wedding Announcement Guidelines The B.A.R. accepts announcements of weddings, civil unions, and domestic partnerships. The announcements may be published in the paper, on our website, or both, depending on space availability. There is no charge for the publication of wedding announcements. To submit an announcement, please include the following information: • Legal names of both parties and ages. • Date, time, and location of wedding, and who officiated • Brief description of the couple, which may include how they met, education, occupation, how long they have been together, family information, etc., and any other information you wish to include. Announcements should be kept to 300 words and may be edited for space. A copy of the marriage license and a daytime phone number are required for verification purposes only. A photograph of the couple will be accepted in digital format (.jpg). Photos should be high resolution (300 dpi) and in focus. Spouses should be identified in the body of the e-mail accompanying the photo. Announcements should be sent in within four weeks of the ceremony. Send information via e-mail to mailto:c.laird@ebar.com or by mail to Bay Area Reporter, 395 9th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. For questions, please send an email to the above address.

Same-Sex Marriage>>

July 25-31, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 13

Prop 8 lands back in court

by Matthew S. Bajko

t is beginning to feel like zombie litigation, as the legal wrangling over California’s same-sex marriage laws refuses to die. Once again the state’s Supreme Court justices are being asked to weigh in on the matter, while a similar cast of litigants, with some new players, are filing dueling briefs over whether or not same-sex couples throughout the Golden State can legally wed. In the latest round of arguments, the group Protectmarriage.com contends that the only same-sex marriages allowed to be performed in California were those of the two plaintiff couples that sued to overturn Proposition 8, the voter-passed ban on same-sex marriage, in federal court. Because those couples married last month, the anti-gay group is contending that none of the 58 counties should be allowed to marry additional same-sex couples. Instead, Protectmarriage.com claims that Prop 8 is still in effect. San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera has decried the lawsuit, now called Hollingsworth v. O’Connell, as “desperate” and is challenging it in court. The case stems from the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision that the anti-gay group did not have standing to appeal lower court rulings that had declared Prop 8 unconstitutional. That led the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on June 28 to lift its injunction against a federal district court ruling that found Prop 8 to be unconstitutional. Governor Jerry Brown issued an edict that the decision applied statewide, leading all California counties to resume marrying same-sex couples. Yet the Prop 8 backers argue that state officials did not have the authority to say all county clerks had to resume marrying same-sex couples since only L.A. and Alameda were parties to the federal litigation, known as Hollingsworth v. Perry. “The Perry court’s authority was limited to providing injunctive relief for the four plaintiffs in that case. Because those plaintiffs have recently been married, all relief due under that injunction has already been provided, and therefore none of the county clerks are required by that injunction to stop enforcing Proposition 8 in the future,” states the Protectmarriage.com’s petition with the court. In agreeing to consider the matter, the state court did refuse Protectmarriage.com’s request that it

Binational

From page 1

“nabbed” him, and he was taken to a Southern California facility “where he was coerced to blindly sign” what “turned out to be a voluntary deportation document.” Garcia tried to claim asylum based on his sexual orientation, but after he was held for more than a day, he was sent back to Mexico. His next attempt was June 28 – the same day the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a stay that allowed same-sex marriages to immediately resume in California. That order came two days after the Supreme Court announced its Prop 8 decision. This time, Garcia tried to enter the U.S. through Arizona. ICE agents took him into custody again. The “authorities acknowledged his request for asylum,” stated Frazier, and extended his incarceration. Frazier said Garcia doesn’t have a criminal record and that he’d gone

San Diego County Clerk Ernest J. Dronenburg Jr.

immediately halt the marriages of same-sex couples throughout California. Following that decision, San Diego County Clerk Ernest J. Dronenburg Jr. filed a similar suit with the state court last Friday, known as Dronenburg v. Brown. Dronenburg is also arguing that Brown did not have the authority to order elected county clerks to once again marry same-sex couples. Rather, Dronenburg claims he has the right to determine whom to issue marriage licenses to and is not bound by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Prop 8 case. He also asked the state court to end the same-sex marriages while it reviews the matter, though his request was rejected by the justices Tuesday. In her response on behalf of state officials filed with the state court July 22, Attorney General Kamala Harris asked the court to deny Dronenburg’s stay request because he “has no likelihood of success on the merits.” She added that his lawsuit is an “impermissible collateral attack” on the federal district court’s ruling against Prop 8. In August the justices are expected to announce if they will hear oral arguments in either case. This week Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County clerk, and Patrick O’Connell, Alameda County’s clerk, whose offices were party to the federal lawsuit, both asked the state court to reject the Protectmarriage.com lawsuit in order to avoid a “conflict in law” that could put them in “an untenable position” of having to comply with one judicial order that would be in contempt of another. Monday, July 22 Herrera filed a similar response with the court on behalf of the city and county of San Francisco, and the counties of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma.

back to Mexico multiple times on his visa, which he’d had for at least 20 years. He was recently moved from Arizona to Pennsylvania. The couple didn’t marry in 2008, during the brief period when such marriages were first legal in California, because “we knew at that point that that was not going to stick, and we wanted to leave our options open,” said Frazier. They had even considered Garcia marrying a woman, a union that typically would be recognized by the government.

Bureaucratic mess

Frazier suspects his husband’s detention is a mix of prejudice and ICE being a bureaucratic mess. “Because ICE is so large, they simply see these people as numbers,” he said. “If they would simply stop and look at the file and read what’s going on, it could be solved so quickly, because there is a solution – marriage.” The couple’s hardship also comes See page 15 >>

“This lawsuit goes beyond desperation,” stated Herrera. “The opponents of marriage equality have argued that the rule of law doesn’t apply, and that when a federal court says a law is unconstitutional, it somehow has no effect on whether it can still be enforced – even in defiance of a decisive federal judgment. But no one can enforce an unconstitutional law, not the state, not a county clerk, and not a small group of misguided advocates who don’t seem to understand when they’ve lost.” Twenty elected county clerks, including those in Contra Costa, Monterey, and Napa, joined in a separate filing Monday to also ask the court to reject Protectmarriage. com’s lawsuit. Written by Monterey County Counsel Charles J. McKee, the petition noted that the state Supreme Court already ruled in an earlier marriage equality case, Lockyer v. the City and County of San Francisco, that county clerks and recorders serve “under the supervision of state officials” when it comes to administering marriage laws. “This is necessary to ensure uniformity in the administration of the marriage laws,” states the brief. It added that without such a determination, the county clerks would be subject to “legal uncertainty and require them to make independent determinations about their duties under state law.” The Lockyer case stemmed from the decision of former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in early 2004 to ignore California’s anti-gay marriage statutes and order the city clerk to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The state court annulled the more than 4,000 weddings that took place that winter after determining such authority lied with state officials and not Newsom.t

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<< Sports

14 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2013

The big chill by Roger Brigham

hile LGBT sports activists celebrate increasing acceptance and awareness in American sports and the erosion of institutionalized homophobia, the host of the next Winter Olympic Games continues to stumble into its arctic past. Over the past several weeks, President Vladimir Putin has signed a series of laws declaring materials supporting or discussing homosexuality “propaganda,” allowing police to arrest foreigners they “suspect” of being gay, and banning the adoption of Russian children in countries where same-sex marriage is legal. Inevitably, the call for a boycott of the Winter Olympics has begun, with noted actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein joining the call this week with an opinion piece in the New York Times. “Mr. Putin’s campaign against lesbian, gay, and bisexual people is one of distraction, a strategy of demonizing a minority for political gain taken straight from the Nazi playbook,” Fierstein wrote. “Can we allow this war against human rights to go unanswered? Although Mr. Putin may think he can control his creation, history proves he cannot: his condemnations are permission to commit violence against gays and lesbians. Last week a young gay man was murdered in the city of Volgograd. He was beaten, his body violated with beer bottles, his clothing set on fire, his head crushed with a rock. This is

most likely just the beginning.” Now, I have written numerous times over the decades about the ills of mixing politics and sports. I think a boycott of the Olympics is one of the stupidest and counterproductive tactics ever employed; the 1980s is best a forgotten decade because of the U.S. and Soviet-led boycotts of the Summer Olympics. Every fiber of my being rejects the idea of a boycott. And yet ... The mythical goal of an Olympics is a level playing field, open to all, mastered by the best. It is about glory and pride and unbridled joy, striving to break free and breathe the free air of victory. But it isn’t an even playing field if you are liable to be arrested at any moment for how you look, how you sound, what you think, what you feel, or what you say – or what someone else with a gun and a badge thinks you might say, do, or feel. Seriously, someone on the International Olympic Committee thinks it’s a good idea to hold the men’s figure skating in Russia, where gay expression is now outlawed? Yes, politics in sports sucks, but Putin is the one who squarely forced the issue, deliberately and calculatingly. The Russian economy is a mess. He’s found his scapegoat and when cash flows into the country from the TV exposure and tourism of the Olympics he can credit the improved economy to his repressive policies. The rubles tourists fork over will pay for the chains and the boots.

Russian President Vladimir Putin could have gay athletes arrested at next year’s Winter Olympics.

So here I find myself in a place I never thought I’d find myself: joining Fierstein in his Olympic torch song. Boycott Sochi. Let Putin know a world of institutionalized oppression is not a world worth living. And it isn’t the Olympic ideal.

Swimming in Seattle

About 40 swimmers and divers from San Francisco Tsunami Swim Club as well as nine players from San Francisco Tsunami Water Polo will head to Seattle next month for the International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics Association championships. “It’s really exciting having it right up the coast there,” said Scott Dobroski, a board member of the swim club. “Our numbers were

a little down last year because of the expense of going to Iceland, but we’ve focused on being able to provide assistance for people who needed it.” Dobroski said the biggest fundraiser this year was a pancake breakfast in June at Sweet Inspirations that raised several thousand dollars for travel expenses. “IGLA is our focus event this year, but excitement is already building for the Gay Games in Cleveland next year,” Dobroski said. The IGLA championships, August 13-18, open just two days after the multi-sport World Outgames closes in Antwerp, Belgium. There was no organized club effort to go to that event although Dobroski said two local synchronized swim-

mers would compete in Belgium. Tsunami Water Polo will hold a pre-IGLA fundraiser to raise funds for travel expenses for the 2014 Gay Games on Saturday, August 3, from 7 to 11 p.m. at Rebel, 1760 Market Street in San Francisco. Live entertainment and raffles will include polo players modeling swimwear on a runway. “This will be my first IGLA championship,” said Frank Vella, president of the team. “A lot of us have just joined in the last couple of years. I’m excited. It will definitely be above the caliber of competition we are used to playing regularly.” Both organizations encourage people to try out the sports and see if they’d like to join. Information on San Francisco Tsunami Swim Club is available at http:// www.sftsunami.org; information on Tsunami Water Polo is available at http://www.tsunamipolo.org. Information on the IGLA championships is available at http://www. IGLA2013.com.

Last Closet folds

The Last Closet, a video and web campaign aimed at getting the commissioners of major men’s professional sports to go on record supporting gay athletes who want to come out, announced this week it is shutting down operations. Organizers said there were a mix of reasons, including the success that has been achieved in creating a more open dialogue and greater awareness over the past two years. The organization’s website, http://www.thelastcloset. org, is to remain operational for a few months and organizers say they will make archived interviews and other materials available to researchers and activists through YouTube.t

Community News>>

July 25-31, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Ready for Real Bad

raig Gaibler, center, of San Francisco is congratulated by friends for being selected as the DJ for the Underground space at the upcoming Real Bad XXV fundraising party at a kick-off event July 21 where this year’s poster and beneficiaries

LGBT shelter

From page 4

that several of them are at least bisexual. Many homeless youth also trade sex for money or a place to stay, so men may have sex with other men even if they don’t identify as gay or bi. On a recent visit to Polk Street, it was fairly easy to find LGBTs who are out.

Binational

From page 13

despite outgoing DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano’s announcement last year that she planned to direct ICE to issue guidance to field offices codifying that LGBT family ties would be recognized in immigration cases. In a September 2012 letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), Napolitano, who was recently chosen to lead the University of California system, said, “In an effort to make clear the definition of the phrase ‘family relationships,’ I have directed ICE to disseminate written guidance to the field that the interpretation of the phrase ‘family relationships’ includes long-term, same-sex partners.” More recently, Napolitano said last month that her department would implement the Supreme Court’s DOMA decision. And already some married binational couples have received green cards for their foreign-born spouses. A DHS spokesman didn’t respond to an interview request for this article. Extraditing Garcia to California seems to be the best option, and it’s not clear why the government isn’t choosing it, Frazier said. Frazier said if his husband were sent to a California facility, they could marry and Garcia

Rick Gerharter

were revealed. Organizers also announced that DJ Luiggi from Spain would be spinning in the Main Room at the September 29 party, which follows the Folsom Street Fair. For ticket information, visit www.realbad.org.

Ed Gairaud, 45, who’s gay, was pushing a shopping cart carrying clothes, blankets, and magazines when he encountered Sims this past Sunday. “I could be housed, but I choose to be outside,” said Gairaud. Asked about whether he’d stay at an LGBT shelter, he said, “I really don’t like shelters.” He said maybe he would “if I could get case management there” to help him apply for benefits and make sure

he makes it to medical appointments regularly. Gairaud said he has HIV and mental health issues. Sam Sadowski, 19, who identifies as bi and transgender, was lying in the doorway of a Polk Street business. She said she would go to an LGBT-welcoming shelter. “It seems like something that’s more open for people like me than others,” she said.t

would be released on bond. Frazier said he hasn’t spoken with anyone at ICE but his attorney, Steve Shaiken, has been communicating with the agency. ICE hasn’t given a specific reason for why the agency can’t extradite Garcia to California, said Shaiken, at least not any logical reason. “Everything they said makes no sense,” he said. Among other factors the government cited is expense. But Shaiken noted that Garcia could have been driven from Arizona to a Southern California facility in less than a day. Instead, the government flew him thousands of miles to Pennsylvania. It’s not clear why Garcia was moved to Pennsylvania in the first place. “I spoke to his deportation officer in Arizona last Monday, and she was not aware that they had just transferred him” to the Pennsylvania facility, Shaiken said this week. Both Pennsylvania and Arizona ban same-sex marriage. On his most recent detention in June, Garcia asserted his fear of returning to Mexico because of his sexual orientation. “Once he made that request, they had to give him the credible fear interview,” said Shaiken, referring to questioning meant to determine the likelihood of Garcia being persecuted

for his sexual orientation if he returns to Mexico to live. The interview hasn’t happened. However, Shaiken said in a Tuesday, July 23 interview that the asylum office in Newark, New Jersey plans to interview Garcia by the end of next week. If that happens, “We’re fairly confident he’ll get a positive finding of credible fear,” he said. Once that determination is made, a bond would be set within days, and Garcia should be released within “a couple weeks, at most,” said Shaiken. Asked why Garcia had repeatedly returned to Mexico if he were so afraid of going back, Shaiken said his client had wanted to see his family, and “a brief visit doesn’t mean you’re not afraid.” He also said if Garcia hadn’t requested asylum, he would have been deported immediately. Frazier has reached out to elected officials. He said the office he’s got the most response from is Pelosi’s. Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said, “I can confirm we have been discussing the situation with the couple, but I really can’t comment further” because of privacy guidelines. He said he also couldn’t comment on the response from ICE or when the matter might be resolved.t

sleeve. A lover of music and arts, Hans inspired others to achieve and live their lives to the fullest. Hans is survived by his brother, Eric. Hans’s body was cremated at the Chapel of the Hill Mortuary and will be laid to rest with his mother and father at the Saint Helena Cemetery.

not been released. An African American transgender woman, Ms. Collins was serving as the vice chair of the San Francisco LGBT Aging Policy Task Force at the time of her death. She was open about her HIV-positive status and served on the task force from its inception. Ms. Collins also served on the board of the Trans March. She was recognized last month by the LGBT Legislative Caucus in Sacramento. She was also honored by Supervisor Jane Kim at last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting. Over the years, Ms. Collins worked with a number of local organizations focusing on seniors, residential hotel tenants, immigrants, and low-income residents. A Facebook posting for next week’s memorial notes that it is potluck. For more information, go to the “Memorial for Jazzie Collins” page. For the Bay Area Reporter’s obituary on Ms. Collins, see http://www.ebar.com/news/article. php?sec=news&article=68941.

Obituaries >> Hans Hunter Kindt July 11, 1959 – April 13, 2013

Hans Hunter Kindt died April 13, 2013 in an automobile accident in Novato, California. Hans was born July 11, 1959 in San Francisco. He was the son of Phyllis and Vance Kindt. Hans was raised in Piedmont, California and later lived in San Francisco and Santa Rosa. He studied acting, comedic improvisation, music, philosophy, social anthropology, archeology, astronomy, science, mathematics, and religion to name a few. He traveled extensively and made countless friends and acquaintances. He spent the final years of his life in Santa Rosa caring for his aging mother who died in February 2013. Those who knew him will remember a fun-loving, charismatic man who never shied away from adventure and wore his heart on his

[Editor’s note: Mr. Kindt’s obituary is being reprinted due to an error in the one that appeared last week.]

Memorial set for Jazzie Collins

Friends and colleagues of Jazzie Collins have announced that a memorial will be held Thursday, August 1 from 5:30 Rick Gerharter to 8 p.m. at Mission High School, 3750 18th Street (at Church) in San Francisco. Doors open at 5. Ms. Collins, 54, died July 11 at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in San Francisco. Her cause of death has

<< Travel

16 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2013

Toronto

From page 11

stay in a gay-friendly boutique hotel in the newer Queer West neighborhood. The upscale Intercontinental Hotel is perfectly situated in the Yorkville neighborhood, which in the 1960s was the hippie Haight Ashbury of Toronto but now is a tony district known for its upscale shops and restaurants. If you prefer to stay in the heart of the Church Wellesley area, the gay-owned six-room McGill Inn Bed and Breakfast is a good option.

Eating out

Toronto’s diversity translates into some of the best and authentically ethnic food you will find anywhere. Sassafraz is in the heart of the Yorkville neighborhood and is set among a row of Victorian houses in the heart of the old hippie neighborhood. It serves up French-inspired Canadian cuisine. The nearby Wish Restaurant features Canadian comfort food including its famed Salmon burger. Quinn’s Steakhouse and Irish Bar downtown is a good place to celebrate the city’s Celtic roots while enjoying hearty fare. If you stroll through any of the city’s Chinatowns, you will be overwhelmed with the choices of restaurants at every price point.

Niagara Falls

Wine Country Ontario is the area near Niagara Falls that blossomed over the past 30 years and now is

Lady Bunny

From page 12

love to see gays outraged, not just lesbians, about the massive national Republican goal of shutting down abortion providers.” Born Jon Ingle and turning 51 next month, Lady Bunny grew up

Ed Walsh

Toronto’s Church-Wellesley neighborhood is home to gay bars and shops.

home to more than 100 wineries. The region has a more mild climate, situated between a ridge on one side and Lake Ontario on the other, making it ideally suited for grape production. The soil is also very rich as it once was literally under water before Lake Ontario shifted centuries ago. Wine Country Ontario is best known as the world’s largest producer of ice wine, sweet dessert wine made from frozen grapes, but table red and white wines are the majority of what it produces. The women-owned and -operated Good Earth Food and Wine Country is a medium-sized winery and a good example of what you will find in the region. Almost all the wines it sells were from grapes grown on the property. It is also known for its superb restaurant and cooking classes.

As a visitor, you can sign up for a class and learn how to cook the meal you are eating. The Reif Estates Winery is a larger winery that is known for its wine and cheese pairings. You can opt to taste various wines for which that region is known along with cheeses that accentuate both the taste of the cheeses and the wine. It modeled its sensory garden after the Bay Area’s own Kendall-Jackson winery in Healdsburg. Niagara Falls itself is about a 90-minute drive from downtown Toronto. The best way to see it is with a bus tour. Niagara Airbus and a number of other companies originate tours from Toronto. The Canadian side of the falls offers the best view. The larger of the two falls, the Horseshoe Falls, is on the Canadian side. A viewing area allows visitors

in Chattanooga, Tennessee and later moved to Atlanta where she was roommates with RuPaul. In the early 1980s they relocated to Manhattan. Lady Bunny shot to fame with her scatological jokes during her drag acts and her launch of the outdoor drag festival Wigstock, which ended

after a decade-long run in 2005. One of her early visits to San Francisco was to perform at the nowdefunct Castro space Josie’s Cabaret and Juice Joint. She was a guest performer at Trannyshack, a weekly drag show hosted by Heklina. The two recently reconnected after a falling out.

to safely go to the edge of the falls. If you want to walk to the U.S. side of the falls, be sure to pack your passport. You can take the famous Maid of the Mist ride that goes to the base of the falls from either the Canadian side or the American side. You can also opt for a tour on walkways behind the falls. Niagara Falls is traditionally known for honeymoons, and with the advent of same-sex marriage in New York, hotels on both sides are hoping more couples will make the trek to the falls to tie the knot or honeymoon. Niagara-on-the-Lake is about a 25-minute drive from the falls and is a picture-postcard perfect town that has lovingly preserved the history of the region while catering to tourists with the finest restaurants, hotels, and spas you will find anywhere. Few Americans know much about the War of 1812 but you can learn about it in Niagara-on-theLake. When the town was called Newark, the Americans battled and defeated the British at Fort George and before they left, burned down the town. But the residents rebuilt and now American tourists dollars are helping to preserve the history that doesn’t make them look so good. Ironically, many historians believe that if Americans hadn’t gone to war with the British in 1812, Ontario and perhaps the rest of Canada might have opted voluntarily to join the U.S. At the time, most of Ontario was occupied by ex-pat Americans who helped settle the area in exchange for free land

and a pledge of loyalty to the British Crown. Preservationists rebuilt Fort George as an historical monument and museum. The fort is staffed by people in period costumes, who explain the region’s history and give visitors a glimpse back to the days when life was very hard. One of Niagara-on-the-Lake’s biggest attractions is the theater scene. The town’s annual Shaw Festival runs from spring until fall with live performances spread out over four theaters. If you want to stay overnight in Niagara-on-the-Lake, there are a wide variety of options but the town’s choices are mostly made up of smaller bed and breakfasts with higher room rates than the hotels closer to the falls. If you plan your trip after Labor Day, the weather will still be warm and the hotel rates will be significantly lower. If you have a big budget, the upscale Queens Landing resort hotel was a place Queen Elizabeth hung her hat when she stopped by for a visit. The hotel’s sister property also pays tribute to the royals. It’s called the Prince of Wales. The chain’s third property, Pillar Post, has a large spa that is a favorite for vacationers who want to be pampered and it is more moderately priced. For those on a more limited budget, the Britaly Bed and Breakfast has rates starting at $130 in the high summer season, which is less than half of what you would pay for a more high-end property.t

“I think the secret to Bunny’s success is threefold: She has a great face for drag, she has great instincts about what works onstage, and she hasn’t died yet,” Heklina told the B.A.R. The last time Lady Bunny could recall performing in the city by the bay – “it’s all a blur” – was during the 2011 Folsom Street Fair. “I never had such a good time in my life; I was dancing my ass off,” said Lady Bunny. This trip she will be performing at Castro bars Toad Hall (Monday, July 29) and QBar (Wednesday, July 31), as well as at SideTrax in Sacramento (Saturday, August 3) and at

the White Horse Inn in Oakland (Sunday, July 28). It is to promote her first song in over a decade, a pop anthem titled “Take Me Up (High),” released by Lybra Records. It “reflects more where I would like to go musically,” said Lady Bunny. “I am thrilled that the response has been good so far because it took me a long time to record something.” Released July 1, the song landed at #1 on Billboard’s dance break out list. “I am optimistic about it,” she said. “No one said it is horrible or don’t ever record again.” t

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FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035248100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PACIFIC BAY REALTY, 3601 CABRILLO ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed IGOR BELOV. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/09/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/09/13.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HEADLIGHTS HAIR STUDIO, 494 HAYES ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GLENN KEITH DE MATTIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/15/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/15/13.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GREAT CLIPS 5270, 1770 FULTON ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GRACE GCCA LLC - (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/12/13.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAHADEV HOTEL, 2420 VAN NESS AVE., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed S & S HOSPITALITY INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/27/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/05/13.

JUly 11, 18, 25, AUg 1, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-0352212

JUly 18, 25, AUg 01, 08, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035230700

JUly 18, 25, AUg 01, 08, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035254200

JUly 25, AUg 01, 08, 15, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035249300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOODFLOWER PAPER AND DESIGN, 1235B DIVISADERO ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MAUREEN BHAK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/18/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/18/13.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO INN, 385 9TH ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NINTH STREET LODGING LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/05/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/05/13.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PORTER GULCH DESIGNS, 1635 GOUGH ST. #604, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BROOKE DEDIEGO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/07/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/10/13.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ANTHONY CIANCIOLO ENTERPRISE, 3488 22ND ST. #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANTHONY CIANCIOLO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/22/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/22/13.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JOSHUA JOHNSON CUSTOM APPAREL, 225 HYDE ST. #103, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSHUA JOHNSON. 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 07/19/13.

JUly 11, 18, 25, AUg 1, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035224700

JUly 18, 25, AUg 01, 08, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035237400

JUly 25, AUg 01, 08, 15, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035245400

JUly 25, AUg 01, 08, 15, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035252200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: YOUTH SF, 4722 MISSION ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed FRIENDS OF ST STEPHENS (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/08/13.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM TRAININGS, 5214F DIAMOND HEIGHTS #106, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RICHARD LAWRENCE RUSSO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/03/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/15/13.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TREEHUGGERS, 1562 PLAZA DR., SAN LEANDRO, CA 94578. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JUSTIN C. SPENCER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/17/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/17/13.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOUL FOOD CITY, 403 EDDY ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed AMINE JEMAI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/19/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/19/13.

JUly 25, AUg 01, 08, 15, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035245100

JUly 25, AUg 01, 08, 15, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035251000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TROCADERO CLUB, 701 GEARY ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ALCYONE, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/17/13.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COFFORNIA, 296 OCEAN AVE., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed COFFORNIA LTD (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/19/13.

JUly 25, AUg 01, 08, 15, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035247000

JUly 25, AUg 01, 08, 15, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035255200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ASIANA TRAVEL, 3001 GEARY BLVD. #203, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DONG YOUNG LEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/18/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/18/13.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SHABU TONIGHT, 1222 NORIEGA ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed IST, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/23/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/23/13.

JUly 11, 18, 25, AUg 1, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035193400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RD TRANSPORT, 1958 35TH AVE., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ABSOLUTE IMPORT USA (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/20/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/20/13.

JUly 11, 18, 25, AUg 1, 2013 STATEMENT OF ABANdONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FIlE A-034687600 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: VAGABOND INN CIVIC CENTER, 385 9TH ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by NINTH STREET LODGING LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/31/12.

JUly 11, 18, 25, AUg 1, 2013 SUMMONS (FAMIly lAW) SUPERIOR COURT OF CAlIFORNIA, COUNTy OF CONTRA COSTA NOTICE TO RESPONdENT: MICHAEl P. gIANNINI, yOU ARE BEINg SUEd. PETITIONER’S NAME IS ESTHER A. dIXON CASE NO. d13-00517 You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this Summons and Petition are served on you to file a Response (form FL-120 or FL-123) at the court and have a copy served on the petitioner. A letter or phone call will not protect you. If you do not file your Response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnerships, your property, and custody of your children. You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the clerk for a fee waiver form. If you want legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately. You can get information about finding lawyers at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/ selfhelp), at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), or by contacting your local county bar association. SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF CONTRA COSTA, 751 PINE ST., MARTINEZ, CA 94533. The name, address, and telephone number of petitioner’s attorney, or the petitioner without an attorney, is: ESTHER A. DIXON, 314 MALCOLM DR., RICHMOND, CA 94801 Date: JAN 31, 2013. Clerk of the Superior Court, by AJ GAMBOL, Deputy.

JUly 18, 25 AUg 01, 08, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035243600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ALWAYS TRUCKING, 1601 CORTLAND AVE., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PATRICIA ESPINOZA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/16/13.

JUly 18, 25, AUg 01, 08, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035215000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BERNARDO TRANSPORTATION CO, 3159 CESAR CHAVEZ #6, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MANOLO BERNARDO MERCHANT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/02/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/13.

JUly 11, 18, 25, AUg 1, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035242500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: L & G ELECTRONICS, 101 GUTENBER ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHENGYU GUO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/16/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/16/13.

JUly 18, 25, AUg 01, 08, 2013

JUly 18, 25, AUg 01, 08, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035225700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KIRIN ENTERPRISE, 3700 CABRILLO ST. #304, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHEN HUANG. 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 07/09/13.

JUly 18, 25, AUg 01, 08, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035226700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CONTRABRANDS, 2539A POLK ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICHOLAS R. AVEDESIAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/09/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/09/13.

JUly 18, 25, AUg 01, 08, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035233400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RAGE STYLE SAVVY BOUTIQUE, 1678 KIRKWOOD ST. #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KASHIA DOMINQUE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/11/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/13.

JUly 18, 25, AUg 01, 08, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035241300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SPACES DESIGN, 966 ILLINOIS ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed MARK STEVEN MILLER & FELIPE MAXIMO RODRIGUEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/19/05. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/16/13.

JUly 18, 25, AUg 01, 08, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035235100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HENRY’S HOUSE OF COFFEE, 1618 NORIEGA, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HOUSE OF COFFEE INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/12/13.

JUly 18, 25, AUg 01, 08, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035222100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: J & J, 175 ORSI CIRCLE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed JACLYN LEE & WESLEY LEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/05/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/05/13.

JUly 18, 25, AUg 01, 08, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035229100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAY EQUITY REVERSE, 100 CALIFORNIA #1100, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BAY EQUITY LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/01/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/10/13.

JUly 18, 25, AUg 01, 08, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035227900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE MARKET; THE MARKET ON MARKET; MARKET ON MARKET; M.O.M.; 1355 MARKET ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MARKET ON MARKET, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/09/13.

JUly 11, 18, 25, AUg 1, 2013

JUly 25, AUg 01, 08, 15, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035205900

JUly 25, AUg 01, 08, 15, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035241700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: REVENGE, 1427 NEWCOMB AVE., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JAZZ BANKS. 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 06/26/13.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FOG CITY, 1300 BATTERY ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed 1300 BATTERY, INC., A CALIFORNIA CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/16/13.

JUly 25, AUg 01, 08, 15, 2013

City and County of San Francisco Outreach Advertising July 2013 #2

Department of Public Health SF Child Health & Disability Prevention (CHDP) Program. Healthy Foods and WIC Nutrition Services at No Cost To You Eating well during pregnancy is important. The Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program can help. WIC serves pregnant women, new mothers, infants and young children under five years old who meet 185% or below of the federal poverty income level. WIC benefits include nutrition and breastfeeding education and support, checks to buy healthy foods (such as fresh fruits and vegetables) and referrals to low cost or free health care and other community services. Enrolling in WIC early in your pregnancy will give your baby a healthy start. Also, WIC staff can show you how you and your family can eat healthier. Migrants are welcome to apply as well. San Francisco WIC has six offices throughout the City. For more information, call (415) 575-5788. This institution is an equal opportunity provider. Did you know that Tooth Decay can affect your child’s ability to do well in school, eat healthy food, and can affect self esteem? If you live in San Francisco ~ call San Francisco Women and Children’s Health Referral line @ 1-800-300-9950 for information about low-cost dental insurance for your child, or to find a dentist for your child. Tooth decay, left untreated, can lead to serious infections and even death! Baby’s first dental visit should be no later than Age One, but it is never too late to see a dentist!

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) SFO is now accepting Proposals for the Pop-Up Retail Concession Program. Proposals must be received no later than 2:00 p.m., Friday, August 2, 2013.

This lease opportunity is comprised of two (2) separate retail locations, each located in Boarding Area E of Terminal 3, scheduled to open in January 2014. The spaces will be move-in ready with fixtures provided, and will require minimal costs to start up. Successful proposers will be offered the opportunity to operate one (1) of the two (2) locations, with an agreement term of either six (6) months or one (1) year. These concessions are intended for the nonexclusive sale of retail merchandise reflective of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. The Request for Proposals (RFP) document is available on-line at http://www.flysfo.com/ web/page/about/b2b/conces/. For additional information, please contact John M. Reeb, at (650) 821-4500, or via email at SFOConcessions@flysfo.com. San Francisco Arts Commission

City Funding for the Arts!

Are you an artist, arts organization, community/neighborhood group, or a social services organization? If so, you may qualify for a Cultural Equity Grant. First application deadline is Friday, August 2. Learn more about the grant program at an upcoming workshop. Visit sfartscommission. org/ceg for dates and times.

Newspaper Outreach Advertising Survey

The Board of Supervisors is evaluating the effectiveness of Outreach advertising. Was the information in this ad helpful and/or interesting to you? What types of articles would you like to see? Please provide your comments at 415-554-7710 or email board. of.supervisors@sfgov.org. Please include the publication name and date. The City and County of San Francisco encourage public outreach. Articles are translated into several languages to provide better public access. The newspaper makes every effort to translate the articles of general interest correctly. No liability is assumed by the City and County of San Francisco or the newspapers for errors and omissions

JUly 25, AUg 01, 08, 15, 2013 NOTICE OF APPlICATION TO SEll AlCOHOlIC BEvERAgES Dated 07/02/13 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: 242 COLUMBUS AVENUE LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 242 COLUMBUS AVE., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133-4509. Type of license applied for

47- ON-SAlE gENERAl EATINg PlACE JUly 18, 25, AUg 01, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035247800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE, 1211 FOLSOM ST., 4TH FL., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PUBLIC DESIGN STUDIO (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/17/02. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/18/13.

JUly 25, AUg 01, 08, 15, 2013 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FIlE A-035235800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TALK STREAM NETWORK; TSN; 2500 MARIN ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SWIRL BROADCASTING, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/12/13.

JUly 25, AUg 01, 08, 15, 2013

ebar.com SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT NOTICE TO PROPOSERS GENERAL INFORMATION The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT (“District”), 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, is advertising for proposals for Small Business Bonding Assistance Program Services for the District’s Insurance and Risk Management, Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 6M4284, on or about July 15, 2013, with proposals due by 2:00 PM local time, Tuesday, August 13, 2013. DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED The District is soliciting the services of a Consultant to provide Small Business Bonding Assistance Program Services, Proposer should note that this RFP is subject to the District’s Small Business Program that includes a preference of five percent (5%) of the lowest responsible Proposer’s price, up to a maximum of $250,000 for a certified Small Business Prime Consultant submitting a Proposal on this Agreement. BART intends to make one (1) award resulting from this RFP to the responsible Proposer offering the Best Value to the District. A Pre-Proposal Meeting will be held on Friday, July 19, 2013. The Pre-Proposal Meeting will convene at 10:00 AMlocal time in the District’s 17th Floor Conference Room No. 1700, located at 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California 94612. At the Pre-Proposal Meeting the District’s Non-Discrimination Program for Subcontracting and the Small Business Program will be explained. All questions regarding MBE/WBE participation should be directed to Mr. Maceo Wiggins, Office of Civil Rights at (510) 464-7194 or E-mail mwiggin@bart.gov. Prospective Proposers are requested to make every effort to attend this only scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting, and to confirm their attendance by contacting the District’s Contract Administrator, telephone (510) 464-6383, prior to the date of the Pre-Proposal Meeting. Networking Session: Immediately following the Pre-Proposal Meeting, the District’s Office of Civil Rights will be conducting a networking session for subcontractors to meet the prime contractors for MBE/WBE participation opportunities. WHERE TO OBTAIN OR SEE RFP DOCUMENTS (Available on or after July 15, 2013) Electronic version of the RFP may be obtained E-mail request to the District’s Contract Specialist, Steve Alva, salva@ bart.gov. Your firm will also be placed on the Interested Parties List (IPL) for this procurement and you will be kept advised during all stages of the entire process. Dated at Oakland, California this 15th day of July, 2013. /s/ Kenneth A. Duron Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 7/25/13 • CNS-2510202# BAY AREA REPORTER

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Gay Igor?

Mystery date

Dore Alley fun

Out &About

O&A

The

Vol. 43 • No. 30 • July 25-31, 2013

www.ebar.com/arts

Japanese immersion

Wilson Jermaine Heredia, who created the role of Angel in Rent, plays Sir Lancelot in San Francisco Playhouse’s revised Camelot.

by Sura Wood

ust in case you didn’t know: cats big and small, puppy dogs and a dragon or two, which are always good to have around, are a few of Larry Ellison’s favorite things, demonstrating that multi-million-dollar catamarans are not the Oracle mogul’s sole obsession. These are among the choice tidbits gleaned from In the Moment: Japanese Art from the Larry Ellison Collection, a jewel of an exhibition at the Asian Art Museum that’s a testament not only to this CEO’s wealth but also to his exqui-

site taste in Japanese art. Partially funded by Ellison, the show could justifiably be construed as a vanity project to feather the already substantial ego of one of the world’s richest individuals, and its timing is not accidental: the dates of the exhibition coincide with the America’s Cup races this summer. So you’ll be forgiven if you find yourself struggling to keep your inner skeptic in check. The welcome news, though, is that the show See page 22 >>

Return of the theatergoer by Richard Dodds

Tigers (detail) (1779) by Maruyama Okyo (Japanese, 1733-95). One of a pair of hanging scrolls; ink and light colors on paper. Larry Ellison Collection.

Courtesy Asian Art Museum

ow where was I before I was so rudely interrupted? Ah, that’s right, sitting in reasonable comfort in a hospital bed with laptop on tray table. A necessary but non-dire bit of surgery was not enough to stop one intrepid journalist from filing a story on time. As just when what would have been, I’m convinced, a wonderful interview with Scottish director John Tiffany (Black Watch) was beginning to materialize, a doctor and his attendants came bursting into the room. “Your blood levels are dropping!” the doctor exclaimed, with what seemed like a Chicken Little urgency. But his readings were right, and off I was launched into a magical mystery medical tour as my heretofore cast-iron corpus rebelled in unexpected ways. When I was able to again pull out the laptop, I found that what felt like ordinary typing appeared on the screen as if a 3-year-old were banging on the keyboard. John Tiffany, alas,

Jessica Palopoli

became the interview that got away. While the business of theater soldiered on without me, I learned that when they offer you headphones during an MRI, Judy Garland is not in their repertoire (lots of Frank Sinatra, though), that the apposing dramas of a series of roommates in optimistically named semi-private rooms was better than daytime television, and that a single dose of generic Ambien is billed at $40. There were must-see productions that I didn’t get to see, and thanks go to veteran scribe Erin Blackwell for her fresh and frank reviews that I both enjoyed and stylistically envied. And special thanks to mon cher editeur Roberto Friedman for tracking me down in the CPMC maze for a morale-boosting phone call. This column marks the restart of my engines, as well as a level of locomotion that I am able to return to active theatergoing. San Francisco Playhouse’s production of Camelot See page 30 >>

Through a Jewish lens by David Lamble

he 33rd San Francisco Jewish Film Festival runs July 25-Aug. 1 at the Castro, Aug. 2-8 at Berkeley’s California Theatre, Aug. 2 at Oakland’s Art Murmur, Aug. 3-8 at Palo Alto’s Cinearts, Aug. 3-4 at SFJCC, Aug. 9-11 at Oakland’s Grand Lake, Aug. 12 at Oakland’s Piedmont, and Aug. 10-12 at the Smith Rafael Film Center. It features two outstanding queer features, along with impressive film spotlights and filmmaker appearances. Out in the Dark Israeli director Michael Mayer dramatizes the stakes with an in-

Michael Aloni (Roy) and Nicholas Jacob (Nimr) in director Michael Mayer’s Out in the Dark. Courtesy SF Jewish Film Fest

{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS }

timate melodrama about a young Jewish lawyer’s affair with a Palestinian grad student. Well-connected attorney Roy thinks his political juice will shelter him and his lover Nimr, but things go seriously awry on both sides of the border. Director/cowriter Mayer appeared at the Frameline festival, where he described casting his charismatic leads Michael Aloni (Roy) and Nicholas Jacob (Nimr). “Michael is a really big star in Israel, and I was reluctant to audition him because he was too pretty, too blonde, but my casting director said, ‘You really should check him out.’ I caught a movie of his, and he was See page 24 >>

<< Out There

22 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2013

His back pages by Roberto Friedman

ast Saturday night Out There attended the opening of performer Don Reed’s new one-man show Can You Dig It? Back Down East 14th – the 60s and Beyond now showing at The Marsh SF. Although Reed is straight, he grew up with a clearly gay halfbrother who features in the show. It’s interesting to see this in 1960s & 70s Oakland, as part of a black family where Dad’s a pimp and Mum a Jehovah’s Witness. True to his milieu, the gay Tony, quite a character, greets challenges to his dignity by fighting back fervidly. After his acclaimed East 14th and The Kipling Hotel, Can You

Dig It? is the third installment of Reed’s autobiographical yarn. In some ways it’s a conventional coming-of-age tale – he impersonates family and neighborhood characters with glee, and ends with a plea for racial and sexual harmony. But Reed’s charisma, talented musicality and dance, and appealing stage presence help his show transcend its genre. At the opening-night afterparty, Marsh artistic director Stephanie Weisman agreed with us that few other area performers move around the black-box stage quite so elegantly. Dig It?’s cultural scope takes in both Dr. King and the Black Panthers, but at least as important to

Courtesy The Marsh

Can You Dig It? writer/ performer/director Don Reed, now at The Marsh.

young Donny’s mental development are James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Sly Stone. Don Reed is a Bay Area-bred luminary who brings it all back home. (Sat. & Sun. through Aug. 25; tickets: themarsh.org or 415-282-3055).

Still thick

It’s been a summer to remember, hasn’t it? Earlier this month, we went to hear classic British prog-rock band Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson play the War Memorial Opera House, performing both his album-length work Thick As a Brick in its entirety for the first time since 1972, as well as his new album, Thick As a Brick 2. With the first TAAB, one long, musically integrated piece, Tull helped broaden rock beyond limitations of the short-song format. Back in the 1970s, this was known as a “concept album.” The 2013 concert turned out to be a theatrical showpiece, complete with video segments and vivid musical accompaniment (bassist David Goodier, keyboardist John O’Hara, drummer Scott Hammond, guitarist Florian Opahle). British singer Ryan O’Donnell also dashed around stage singing

In the Moment

From page 21

is surprisingly good. Comprised of high-quality, carefully selected, pristine objects, a fraction of the acqui-

Courtesy Andrea Schwartz Gallery

Cast Iron Grooms (2013), oil on canvas by Donald Bradford.

portions of the lead part, its high notes now falling somewhat out of Anderson’s range. “So! Where the hell was Biggles/when you needed him last Saturday?/And where are all the Sportsmen/who always pulled you through?/They’re all resting down in Cornwall/writing up their memoirs/for a paperback edition of the Boy Scout manual.” TAAB2 answers the question, Whatever happened to Gerald Bostock, the fictional poet prodigy credited with writing the lyrics for TAAB? Anderson says writing the sequel gave him a chance to wonder “how we baby-boomers look back on our own lives, and feel an occasional ‘what-if ’ moment. Might we, like Gerald, have become instead preacher, soldier, down-and-out, shopkeeper or finance tycoon?” Or flautist rock star?

Love letters

sitions that decorate Ellison’s Japanese-style Woodside mansion on a rotating basis, it includes folding screens, hanging scroll paintings, religious and secular sculptures, metal works, and a pair of wrestling puppies having a go at each other – some things never change. Carved out of lacquered wood, they’re a prime example of Kamakura-period (1200s) realism, and incidentally, one of Ellison’s prized possessions. The man loves his pups. The museum’s retired director Emily Sano, who’s a private consultant to the collection, which is partial to flora and animal imagery, and Laura Allen, curator of Japanese art, contributed to the soothing minimalist aesthetic, especially apparent in a room designed as an immersive installation. Benches in the gallery allow visitors to kick back and relax in a serene, contemplative setting meant to mimic the passage of a day – from dawn to dusk concentrated in a three-minute cycle – inside a

traditional Japanese home before the invention of electricity. Fluctuations in the lighting and sound affect one’s perception of a pair of expansive, 6-by-12 ft., 17th-century folding screens by Hasegawa Togaku; adorned with reflective gold leaf, they depict a violent expressionistic scene of waves crashing on jagged rocks. The works of Maruyama Okyo, the great Edo-period artist known for his independence and his blending of Western realism with East Asian subject matter, are a highlight of the exhibition. Okyo, who sketched from life, injected a stirring naturalism and vibrancy into his numerous paintings of animals, an approach which represented a new wrinkle in Japanese painting of the time. In Ellison’s favorite piece, a stunning pair of dramatic folding screens titled “Dragon and Tiger,” Okyo positions wild beasts of the real and mythical variety on opposite sides of a sprawling shadowy nether-

The painting reproduced here is a work by Bay Area artist Donald Bradford, from his solo exhibition Love & War now showing at Andrea Schwartz Gallery (545 4th St., SF, through July 26). The gallery explains, “Growing up around the family-owned wedding chapel, Bradford’s paintings reference his childhood memories of love and marriage. His childhood home functioned as a full chapel, set just off the kitchen, complete with pews, an organ, and stained-glass windows. The chapel was open 24 hours, and couples waiting to get married often spilled over into the living and dining rooms of the house. Bradford’s paintings are influenced by the themes of love, weddings, and marriage. In his latest series, Bradford adds elements related to gay marriage. His paintings of bulletin boards and love letters blend images of traditional marriage with the iconography of social equality.” It’s an art offering that’s timely indeed.t

See page 29 >>

Courtesy Asian Art Museum

Auspicious Pine, Bamboo, Plum, Crane and Turtles, Edo period (1615-1868), ca. 1630-50, by Kano Sansetsu (Japanese, 1590-1651). One of a pair of six-panel folding screens. Ink and colors on gold. Larry Ellison Collection.

Music >>

July 25-31, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 23

Ambisexual Stravinsky? by Tim Pfaff

here’s a powerfully good read to be had in Robert Craft’s Stravinsky: Discoveries and Memories (Naxos Books), whose release was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary, on May 27, of Igor Stravinsky’s most famous composition, The Rite of Spring, one of the watershed works of modernity. Craft’s book drops a bomb that, in the tawdry modern way, could yet overshadow the other Rite thinking that has attended the anniversary. Calling his revelation “long overdue” yet timely in sense that things have changed, the world has changed, and these things can now be talked about, Craft writes, “It will come a surprise to most people that in the early Diaghilev period Stravinsky was exclusively in an ambisexual phase while writing Petrushka and The Rite of Spring.” Even without the head-scratchers of “exclusively,” “ambisexual” and “phase,” “surprise” is a stunner of an understatement predicting the storm of controversy his assertion that Stravinsky had sex with men in the period in which he was composing The Rite would stir up, as it has. It would have been a poor calculation for Craft, whose career as a musician and writer, and whose own personal fame, rest on his long association with Stravinsky as colleague and confidant, to steal his master’s thunder in the Rite Year. But Craft had to know that his contention, and the raft of evidence of whatever reliability he has supplied to support it, would sell books. Whatever else, Craft is back in the news, right alongside the master. I’m going to wager right up front that, before crying foul, the experts who doubt the veracity of Craft’s claims about Stravinsky’s sex with men read Craft’s 400-page memoir – or at least the chapter “Amorous Augmentations” – with the same slackjawed, page-turning, fingerburning fascination I did. True or not, it’s a spellbinding story, and at least on its surface none of it seems implausible or distasteful. Men in their 20s, particularly those with libidos like Stravinsky’s (Craft says the composer’s persisted into his 80s), are known for the range of their sexual activities, and the milieu in which Stravinsky worked at the time – Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and the Parisian homosexual underground of Les Apaches – would have provided an abundance of opportunity. It would be stranger to think that Stravinsky had not had sex with men then. Craft maintains that at the time of The Firebird, Stravinsky was in love with Andrey RimskyKorsakov, the son of his famous teacher. He even suggests that Stravinsky may have spent time in Diaghilev’s arms. Among the other men with whom Craft alleges he had sexual-romantic relations were Belgian composer Charles Maurice Delage and the fellow composer who introduced the two, Maurice Ravel. “Ravel and Stravinsky were, of all artists, the most successful in concealing their sexuality,” Craft writes, following up with one of his most rigorously contested assertions: “The two were time-to-time lovers in the early Diaghilev years.” In no way is Craft teasing the “Was Stravinsky gay?” question. In his Times Literary Supplement essay, purportedly about The Rite, that appeared just after the book’s release, he writes almost offhand-

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edly of Stravinsky’s “hyperactive heterosexual philandering.” And although there he makes a detailed case for Stravinsky’s having had a much greater hand in the making of The Rite than was previously thought, he does not argue that a homosexual reading would deepen our understanding of the inscrutable masterpiece. But neither is there even-handedness, let alone neutrality, in his “exploration” of Stravinsky’s sexuality. Even taking into account Craft’s 89 years, the language he uses to describe it is not merely arch but implicitly judgmental. What, on the heterosexual front, is philandering, on the man-sex side is sensationally lurid conduct. “In the spring of 1911 Stravinsky had spent a three-week vacation at Delage’s gay agapemone near Paris, not alone but with the notoriously homosexual Prince Argutinsky, whose letters are still in private hands,” Craft writes, in the smoky language of the private men’s club. “A Russian gentleman who has read this correspondence told me a few months after Stravinsky’s death that Argutinsky’s letters are ‘very compromising to [sic] Stravinsky biography.’ In the late summer of 1911 Stravinsky sent to Delage … a photograph of himself in the nude with a prominent upwardly mobile nozzle.” The photo is not among the book’s gallery of fascinating photos of the composer and his friends. (The physical book also comes with a CD of Craft’s pedantic 2007 interpretation of The Rite as conductor.) Stravinsky: Discoveries and Memories has been for me the guiltiest of pleasures. Without the scholarly weight of biography, it’s a feast of “the good parts,” and it greatly fills out our picture of this greatest of 20th-century composers. And it addresses musical matters head-on. It’s particularly good in its detailed depiction of Stravinsky’s beloved second wife Vera, who also, it seems, had an augmented heterosexual amorous agenda of her own. But for all the sweetness that only such a memoir can bring, there is, after the controversy it deliberately created, the nagging doubt about how much of it is

true. And the language used to depict Stravinsky’s sexuality, particularly the sex with men, smacks of judgment and has a disagreeable aftertaste, one that made me wonder how much things really have changed.t

SAN FRANCISCO, CA RICK BARTALINI

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<< Film

24 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2013

Checkmate by software by David Lamble

f I told you that a breakout summer hit for adults might just be a grainy, B&W, fake doc about a gaggle of creepy-looking guys with really bad haircuts hovering around the meeting rooms of a rundown Austin motel, would you rush out to Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinemas? Computer Chess creator Andrew Bujalski specializes in deadpan comedies whose characters are slip-sliding out of college with only a tenuous hold on a center of gravity for their romantic or professional lives. The term “Mumblecore” adheres to him and a few young film peers the way “New Wave” defined a post-WWII generation of French directors. Like Eric Rohmer, Bujalski is fascinated by the way 20somethings define themselves in loose bursts of innocuous chatter. The film is set at a 1980 showdown between programming teams out to prove that a machine can win at chess. Peter (agile newcomer Patrick Riester), a nervous, bright boy who dresses like he’s still in high school, is wandering the motel in a daze when he stumbles upon horny, unscrupulous spiritualists, a husband/wife

duo bent on recruiting him for slutty ends. “What should we get him, coffee, tea or a drink?” “Our guy Ken Lowe says no alcohol, no dope. He’s kind of strict about that sort of thing.” “Right, he says it’s a spiritual shortcut, unearned grace. Have you ever tried LSD?” “Whoa, honey, let’s not have the Spanish Inquisition over here. Give the boy some room.” “No, but I’ve read about it, and I thought it was interesting how just a temporary hallucination had a permanent effect on some people’s consciousness.” “Look at the way his mind is working.” “Peter, if you want to leave, it’s okay. It’s a free country.” Often the phrase “It’s a free country” is a sign that a film is headed to a dark place. But Bujalski traffics in ambiguity, and Peter is not mauled by these spiritual wolverines. The impact of this virtual heavy petting comes at film’s end in a scene he engineers for himself. In a Bujalski film there’s often little difference between acting and living. His mostly non-professional actors insinuate their real-life concerns seamlessly into the story. In an

unnerving climax, a real-life programmer imagines he’s found godlike presence inside a computer. If the Fox-TV classic Undeclared or CBS’ The Big Bang Theory are too nerdy for your taste, then avoid the brainy, awkwardly dressed young fellows in this techie howler. Shot with a cutting-edge 1980 videocamera that resembles a hairdryer, the chess players, terminally frozen in angst, are the show. From an aggressive religious stalker (Myles Paige) who sleeps in the hotel lobby to a programmer upset that his software may have been tampered with (Wiley Wiggins), this engrossing giggle-fest is an instant cult classic. The Hunt In Danish auteur Thomas Vinterberg’s latest offering, an unassuming rural kindergarten teacher, Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), becomes a virtual human sacrifice when the school’s headmistress suspects him of exposing himself to the young daughter, Klara, of his best friend. What distinguishes this high-stakes moral thriller is that Lucas is the victim not only of a happenstance – Klara’s older brother jokingly shows sis a drawing of a penis – but also of the girl’s inability to

SFJFF

From page 21

outstanding. With Nicholas, his girlfriend at the time was auditioning to be his sister. She didn’t get it, but as she was leaving she said, ‘If you’re still looking for a lead, I think my boyfriend would be terrific, he’s never acted before.’ When he appeared with Michael, the chemistry was phenomenal.

Kino Lorber, Inc. photo

Patrick Riester as Peter Bishton in director Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess.

distinguish between reality and make-believe when hysterical adults pounce. Those familiar with the classics of Ingmar Bergman will recognize a Scandinavian penchant for dark insights into how treacherous grownups can be when their deepest fears are stirred beyond the brink of paranoia. With our firm grasp on Lucas’ innocence,

it’s traumatic to watch him expelled, stripped of friends, beaten to a pulp, and enduring the murder of his dog and humiliation of his teenage son. As gay playwright William Hoffman once said of Joe Orton, “He presents a view of people as unredeemed beasts. We raise our hands in horror, but often we are like that.” (Both films are opening on Friday.)t

“The story came from a dinner conversation I had with a friend with an organization that supports gay Palestinians who are in Israeli illegally. I know about a 1994 report that indicated that Israeli intelligence was blackmailing Palestinian gays back then.” Mayer was asked why he didn’t provide a more hopeful ending. “We shot in Israel and Palestine, but edited in LA. When we showed a rough cut, everyone there had the same reaction you did. ‘Why so hopeless?’ My producer at the time was showing the same cut to people in Israel, and they came out saying, ‘Is that a heavy ending? Well, nobody dies.’ So I thought, ‘Leave it right there.’ My co-writer stands a little to the right politically, I’m a little to the left. Not to be too pessimistic, but we’re really not that hopeful about any sort of resolution in the near future.” (Castro, 7/29; California, 8/2; Cinearts, 8/8) Lies in the Closet Or is a young man so brilliantly duplicitous director Shirly Berkovitz must have dreamt him. Or, a 22-year-old, skinny, bushy-haired boy living with his parents, concocts an elaborate hoax: he brazenly fakes a letter of admission from Oxford, gets Dad to write a huge check for school, and mails it to a Bangkok hospital specializing in sex reassignment surgery. Or is ambivalent about his bait-and-switch lifechange on the parents. “How can I say Mom and Dad if they don’t really know me? I lived with them for 22 years, they’re prejudiced.” Swathed in bandages, Or phones home describing Bangkok as if it were Oxford, eventually assuaging his guilt with a Thai beauty makeover. “Can you make me pretty?” “Sometimes, before you’re pretty, you have to be ugly first.” A final Bangkok night belting out a tipsy transgender version of “My Way” precedes an awkward Tel Aviv airport meet with Mom, who is accepting (she had noticed the dresses hanging in the back of her son’s closet). Personal truths must finally be faced. In an amazing climax offcamera, Dad freaks. “You’ll give me a heart attack. Give me back my son!” (Castro, 7/28; California, 8/3)

Red Flag Actor/writer/director Alex Karpovsky has buzz from his guest slots on HBO’s Girls, as the bad boyfriend in Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture, and as the saintly wannabe lawyer/lover in Andrew Bujalski’s Beeswax. The SFJFF’s Spotlight on Karpovsky features this screening of his fifth film, in which he travels the South showing an eco doc, Woodpecker (his second), while having an awful but rather funny time with a friend and that buddy’s angry girlfriend. By phone, he discussed his methods, influences, and how Red Flag originated. “I had recently got out of a relationship which ended badly, so the last thing I wanted to do was be alone with my thoughts. I wanted to make a movie on the road so I could work with friends and come away with a movie I was happy with. So those motels are motels we actually stayed in, and all those Q&As were part of the actual tour. “I had a 30-page outline with a short description for each scene. I would discuss the beats with the actors and allow them to hit them in their own words. This is kind of how Larry David shoots Curb Your Enthusiasm.” (Castro, 7/27; Grand Lake, 8/11) American Jerusalem: Jews and the Building of San Francisco “The city is growing rapidly, murders and robberies occur frequently, but who cares? Everyone has his Bowie knife and revolver, and that is protection enough!” – Adolph Sutro. Marc Shaffer docs the unique role the Jewish community played in the construction of modern San Francisco, when 19th-century Jews fled Germany. “Jews were present in San Francisco from the very beginning. The first high holy day services were held in 1849.” A sleepy town in the late 1840s, San Francisco exploded when gold was discovered, the world rushed in, and as one expert notes, “Jews rushed in.” Shaffer examines the paradoxes that shaped Jewish life in the young city. Free for the first time from persecution, Jews were anxious that they never again become “the other.” (Castro, 7/31; Cinearts, 8/3) Hannah Arendt It’s May 1960, and German-born scholar HanSee page 29 >>

Books >>

July 25-31, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 25

The weight of words by Jim Piechota Metaphysical Dog by Frank Bidart; Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24

idely considered one of the true living masters of contemporary poetry, prize-winning gay poet Frank Bidart, 72, is best known for penning emotionally substantial pieces, in books like Watching the Spring Festival (2008) and Star Dust (2005). Bidart’s longform poem Herbert White was made into a short film by James Franco in 2010. This eighth volume begins with the title poem, describing a begging, supine pet (whom Bidart compares to himself) who speaks volumes in the space of nine delicate lines. Longer and more resonant is “Writing Ellen West,” where Bidart places himself in third-person perspective “in the year after his mother’s death.” He intimately describes the years of struggle and sadness it took in order for him to “survive her.” The theme of escaping the physical body for spiritual enlightenment emerges only after many pages are read (and re-read), digested, and pondered by readers who take their poetry seriously. Bidart reflects on the gay experience. In “Queer,” he muses, “You learned early that adults’ genteel/

fantasies about human life/were not, for you, life. You think sex/is a knife/driven into you to teach you that.” A chilling reflection on what survivor’s guilt feels like in the wake of the AIDS epidemic follows. “The plague you have thus far survived. They didn’t./ Nothing that they did in bed that you didn’t.” Catholic priests come within the poet’s grasp as well, as in “Defrocked,” where a man of pious intentions reaches out for the forbidden fruit, and “with a sudden rush of milk you taste what has no end.” This timely, moving piece ends with words that apply not only to the church scandals, but also to our own temptations to dip our toes into the rebel darkness of the taboo: “If you want something enough,” Bidart writes, “sometimes you think it’s there.” With a blend of metaphors and phrase repetitions, smooth cadence and careful spacing, Bidart explores truths about the lives others lead vs. the ones we’ve made for ourselves. Perhaps most convincing are the pieces he offers where the obvious is left to the reader’s imagination.

“Rio” is one such example, a short, haunting work about someone you didn’t call, but who arrives “to fix the door.” It’s clear the verse has nothing to do with a physical door, but with the defeat of believing that “you have lived past the necessity for doors.” Such is the brilliance of Frank Bidart’s lush, lovely wordplay. He is one of the true maestros of poetry that makes one think, while enjoying the texture and torture of precisely arranged words on a page.t

Mysteries for summer reading by Tavo Amador

ummer is in full swing, which often means long flights with the inherent delays that air travel entails before arriving at a beachfront hotel or resort. No matter: reading a good murder mystery will make the journey more bearable and keep you entertained after you check in at your destination. This is also true if you plan to stay local and spend sunny afternoons at Dolores Park. For those who don’t like hot weather, Rhys Bowen’s The Twelve Clues of Christmas (Berkeley Crime, $24.95), her latest Royal Spyness mystery featuring Lady Georgiana Rannuch, will offer a bracing chill. Georgie, daughter of a duke and 35th in line to the English throne occupied by King George V and Queen Mary, is, as usual, broke. A poor relation, she seems doomed to spend the holidays in the freezing discomfort of her ancestral Scottish castle. Then she unexpectedly gets a job in an idyllic English village, helping Lady Hawse-Gorzley with a huge holiday house-party for paying guests. Also at the village are Georgie’s oft-wed mother Claire Daniels, a glamorous stage star, and Noel Coward, writing a new play for her. At Georgie’s insistence, Claire, who has erased all traces of her background, is joined by her father, a retired cockney cop, and his companion, Mrs. Huggins, who will cook for her and Coward. Not long after Georgie arrives at the village, dead bodies are found in unusual circumstances. Soon enough, the smolderingly sexy Irish peer

Darcy O’Mara, who leads a secret life, arrives to help Georgie solve the yuletide crimes – and arouse her passions. Another witty, entertaining entry in the series. The weather in Provence is milder than in Britain, but murder still occurs. In M.L. Lon g wor t h’s Death in the Vines (Penguin, $15), Oliver Bonnard is stunned when a priceless collection of rare vintages is stolen from his wine cellar. Then the formidable Madame Pauline D’Arras, who has been behaving oddly, is found dead. Her husband Gilles calls upon Inspector Bonnet and Judge Verlaque to come to Aix-en-Provence to investigate. This splendid sequel to Death at the Chateau Bremont has appealing and resourceful sleuths, a fine plot, a superb sense of place, and a terrific sense of Gallic bravura. The French influence is still felt in post-Katrina New Orleans, the setting for Joy Castro’s latest Nola Cespedes mystery, Nearer Home (St. Martin’s, $25.99). While jogging, Nola, a crime reporter for the Big Easy’s Times-Picayune Express, finds the dead body of Dr. Judith Taffner, her former journalism instructor at Tulane. Then another corpse turns up during the city’s popular Jazz Festival. Corruption is rampant among the police force and local politicians, so Nola, not trusting the authorities, investigates on her own. This

exceptionally atmospheric story features a tough, memorable heroine, christened Nola by her single Cuban mother so she would have a sense of roots. See page 28 >>

ebar.com

<< Out&About

26 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2013

Wunderworld, Sat. 27

Jewish Film Festival @ Castro Theatre

A Comedy of Errors, Fri. 26

Annual festival of Jewish and Israelithemed narrative, feature, short and documentary films with diverse topics including Amy Winehouse, Neil Diamond and Broadway musicals. The gay-themed Israeli film Lies in the Closet screens July 28, 8:30pm. Thru Aug. 12. 429 Castro St. 621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com

Mark I. Chester @ Magnet Exhibit of prints by the prolific photographer of leather/kink communities; Narratives of Desire, a series of multiple images with a sexy gay narrative. Thru July. 4122 18th St. www.markichester.com www.magnetsf.org

Amy Seiwert’s Imagery @ ODC Theater Sketch 3: Expectations includes world premiere contemporary ballet works by Amy Seiwert (ODC Dance), Marc Brew (UK-based, he also set works on Oakland’s AXIS Dance) and Val Caniparoli (San Francisco Ballet), performed by Seiwert’s Imagery company members. $25-$30. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. 3153 17th St. 8639834. www.ASImagery.org David Wilson

Kidding by Jim Provenzano

hile many of you dear readers will partake of the adult entertainments at the annual Up Your Alley Street Fair and its various spanky-wanky events (see Sunday 28, and Scott Brogan’s Leather column), other LGBT folks will be enjoying a very different celebration, Family Day at the the Contemporary Jewish Museum (also Sunday, 28). We’re at an interesting crossroads, we homofolk. While some enjoy new forms of the ‘traditional’ family life, others dive into the realms of kinkdom

Thu 25 50 Shades! The Musical @ Marines’ Memorial Theatre Touring production of the musical parody, where a women’s book club reads the bestselling (yet terribly written) straight erotica book series. $30-$65. Tue-Thu 8pm. Fri & Sat 3pm, 6:30-9:30pm. Sun 3pm & 6:30pm. 609 Sutter St. Thru July 28. (888) 746-1799. www.50ShadesMusical.com

Bay Area Playwrights Festival @ Thick House Theater 36th annual showcase of new plays, including works by Bay Area writers Joan Holden, Prince Gomolvilas and Erin Bregman; and New Yorkers Jiehae Park, Laura Schellhardt and Kimber Lee. $15-$60 (full pass). Various times thru July 28. 1695 18th St. www.playwrightsfoundation.org

with aplomb. Who knows? Perhaps some do both. And who are we to judge, so long as they don’t frighten the horses, or babies in double-wide strollers. Shows that blend kidfriendly and adult-smart entertainments are rare, and worth noting, like Wunderworld, the wacky Alice in Wonderland update (see Saturday 27), and another remake on a classic, The Wiz (see Saturday 27). No matter your age, stay young at heart. But please don’t bring your kids to the street fair, otherwise I’ll bring Mister Slave to your pre-school.

Chance @ Alcove Theater Richard Isen’s gay-themed musical play about love and taking risks, inspired by quotations from Oscar Wilde. $40-$60. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm. Sun 5pm. Thru July 28. 414 Mason St. 992-8168. www.chancethemusical.com www.thealcovetheater.com

Courtney Love @ The Independent The royal widow of grunge performs live, apparently without her band Hole, nor an opening act; should be interesting! $45. 8pm. 628 Divisadero. 771-1421. www.theindependentsf.com

Emily Bergl @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko Entertaining “nouveau cabaret” singer performs classics and pop faves (Cole Porter, Tracy Chapman). $30-$55. ($20 food/ beverage credit included). 8pm. Also July 26, 8pm & July 27, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. 394-1111. www.hotelnikkosf.com

Sweet Bird of Youth @ Tides Theatre Local production of Tennessee Williams’ haunting play about a boozy has-been actress and her gigolo who escape to his small Gulf Coast hometown after a Broadway flop. $20-$40. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 24. 533 Sutter St. at Powell, 2nd floor. 399-1322. www.tidestheatre.org

Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma @ The Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers performs Scrumbly Koldewyn and Pam Tent’s new, full-length restored version of The Cockettes’ 1971 wacky drag musical comedy on the 42nd anniversary of the original production. $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Extended thru July 27. 575 10th St. at Bryant. (800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Fri 26 Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi Musical comedy revue, now in its 35th year, with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. Reg: $25-$130. Wed, Thu, Fri at 8pm. Sat 6:30, 9:30pm. Sun 2pm, 5pm. (Beer/wine served; cash only). 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 4214222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Blake Tucker @ GLBT Center See the local photographer’s large exhibit of gay-themed prints. 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors. Thru July. 1800 Market St. www. BlakeTucker.com www.sfcenter.org

A Comedy of Errors @ Forest Meadows Ampitheatre, San Rafael Marin Shakespeare Company’s outdoor ampitheatre productions of William Shakespeare’s classic story of mistaken identities, adapted with a Texan cowboy theme; performed in repertory with The Spanish Tragedy, Thomas Kyd’s classic Elizabethan revenge tragedy, considered Shakespeare’s inspiration for Hamlet. Thru August 11. $20-$37.50. Fri & Sat 8pm. 4pm and/or 8pm Sun. Pre-show picnicking welcome. Dominican University, 890 Belle Ave., San Rafael. 499-4488. www. marinshakespeare.org

Dandelion Dance Theatre @ Temescal Arts Center, Oakland The experimental dance company presents Inhale, Exhale, Repeat, a 24-hour participatory performance exploring breath, slowness, Shabbat, cyclical time, community ritual, sleep, duration and dreams; with featured work by several other performers. $12-$24. 8:30pm. 511 48th St., Oakland. www.dandelionstem1.blogspot.com

Steven Underwood

Hot Strokes @ Mark I. Chester Studio Exhibit of erotic, leather and kink-themed male nude drawings made at the studio’s drawing group, with works by Tom Atkins, David Barnard, Avery Cassell, Dan Becker, Mark I. Chester, Joe Norton, Roger Renn, Rolando B. Rosler and William Ulrich. Free/ donations ($20 gets you a poster); digital portraits (in your leather/kink gear on Up Your Alley, or other days) by Chester. 7pm-10pm. July 27 2pm-5pm. July 28, 2pm-7pm, thru Aug by appointment. 1229 Folsom st. www.MarkIChester.com

Josh Klipp and The Klipptones @ Palace Hotel The local jazz crooner and his band perform weekly shows at the hotel’s lounge. Extended thru Aug. 16. 7pm-11pm. 2 New Montgomery. www.joshklipp.com

Keith Moon: The Real Me @ Eureka Theatre Mick Berry’s solo show explores the life and death of The Who’s fabled drummer. $40. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Extended thru Aug. 4. 215 Jackson St. (800) 838-3006. www.keithmoontherealme.com

Sat 27 Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Enjoy the new exhibit of vintage prints, taken by the gay Beat poet, of his friends Jack Kerouac and others. Also, Beyond Belief: 100 Years of the Spiritual in Modern Art, part of the SF MOMA’s off-site collaborative exhibits; thru Oct 27. 2pm-5pm. Free (members)-$12. Thu-Tue 11am-5pm (Thu 1pm-8pm) 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Brenna Murphy @ YBCA Liquid Vehicle Transmitter, Murphy’s unusual neo-futuristic installation (Thru Sept. 8). Also, Migrating Identities, a group exhibit of international artists exploring themes of heritage and personal history, from Iran to South Africa. Free-$12-$15. 6pm-10pm. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Camelot @ SF Playhouse Local production of Lerner and Loewe’s hit Broadway musical about King Arthur, Guinevere and his court, stars Tony Award winner Wilson Jermaine Heredia. $25-$75. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm. Thru Sept 21. 450 Post St. (2nd floor, Kensington Park Hotel). 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Can You Dig It? @ The Marsh Don Reed’s new solo show about the groovy 1960s. $15-$50. Sat 8:30, Sun 7pm. Thru August 25. 1062 Valencia St. at 22nd. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Fortunate Daughter @ La Val’s Subterranean, Berkeley Impact Theatre’s intimate production of Thao P. Nguyen’s solo show about her struggle to exist in separate families: traditional Vietnamese heritage, and her acquired queer family. $10-$20. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 3. 1834 Euclid Ave., Berkeley. www.impacttheatre.com

From Heather’s Mommies to Tango’s Daddies @ SF Public Library Subtitled The Evolution of Family Affirming Children’s Literature, exhibit curator Randall Tarpey-Schwed shares his unique collection of children’s books that portray gay or lesbian parents. Thru Aug. 1. Hormel Center, 3rd floor. Also, illustrations from Marcus Ewert and Rex Ray’s book 10,000 Dresses on display on the 2nd floor (thru Aug 31). 100 Larkin St. 557-4400. www.sfpl.org

Hedwig and the Angry Inch @ Boxcar Theatre The hit local production of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s popular transgender rock operetta features multiple actor-singers performing the lead. $25-$40. Wed-Sat 8pm. Also Sat 5pm. Extended with open-ended run. 505 Natoma St. 967-2227. www.boxcartheatre.org

In the Moment @ Asian Art Museum Japanese Art From the Larry Ellison Collection, an exhibit of 60+ artworks from the collection of Oracle’s CEO. Thru Sept 22. Also Art of Adornment, Southeast Asian Jewelry ; Thru Nov 24. Free (members)-$12. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. 200 Larkin St. 5813500. www.asianart.org

J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere @ Museum of the African Diaspora J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere: Sartorial Moments and the Nearness of Yesterday (artist talk July 24) and Gordon Parks: Photographs at His Centennial (both thru Sept. 29). Special lectures and events thru exhibit runs. 685 Mission St. at 3rd. 358-7200. www.moadsf.org

Live in the Castro @ Jane Warner Plaza New twice-weekly (Sat & Sun) live outdoor music concerts presented by the Castro/ Upper Market Community Benefit District. Castro St. at Market. 500-1181. www.castrocbd.org

God of Carnage @ Shelton Theater New local production of Yasmina Reza’s darkly funny play (translated by Christopher Hampton) about four parents whose negotiations about a bullying child descend into savagery. $26-$38. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Sept. 7. 533 Sutter St. (800) 838-3006. www.SheltonTheater.com

Josh Kornbluth @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley

Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, Thu. 25 David DaSilva

The acclaimed thought-provoking solo performer’s Sea of Reeds explores his process of getting bar-mitzvahed in Israel as an adult, despite being an athiest. $20-$35. Wed & Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru Aug. 18. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

LGBT Family Day at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, Sun. 28 courtesy CJM

Out&About >>

July 25-31, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 27

Tue 30

The Wiz, Sat. 27

Andrew Sean Greer @ Books Inc. Author of the bestselling The Confessions of Max Tivoli reads from and discusses his new novel, The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells. Free. 7:30pm. 2275 Market St. 8646777. www.booksinc.net

Book Club @ Magnet Gay-themed book club; this month’s discussion is about Jeff Mann’s civil war novel Purgatory. 7:30-9pm. 4122 18th St. 581-1600. www.magnetsf.org

Butterflies & Blooms @ Conservatory of Flowers

Reefer Madness @ San Jose Stage Company

Science Exhibits @ The Exploratorium

South Bay production of Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney’s Off-Broadway musical comedy loosely based on the vintage camp film about marijuana addicts. $16-$45. Wed & Thu 7:30pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru July 28. 490 South First St., San Jose. (408) 283-7142. www.thestage.org

Visit the fascinating science museum in its new Embarcadero location. Free-$25. Pier 15 at Embarcadero. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm (Thu night 6pm-10pm, 18+). 528-4893. www.exploratorium.edu

This Is How It Goes @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Aurora Theatre Company’s production of Neil LaBute’s edgy comic drama about race, love, and emotional manipulation. $35-$50. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. Extended thru July 28. 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

The Wiz @ Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley Berkeley Playhouse’s local production of Charlie Smalls and William F. Brown’s Tony Award-winning musical update on The Wizard of Oz. $17-$60. Wed & Thu 7pm. Sat 2pm & 7pm. Sun 12pm & 5pm. Thru Aug. 25. 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 845-8542. www.BerkeleyPlayhouse.org

Wunderworld @ Creativity Theater Thrillride Mechanics perform Sara Moore and Michael Phillis’ “human cartoon” play about an 80-year-old Alice who takes a trip down the rabbit hole once again. $10-$15. Sat 11am & 2pm. Sun 2pm & 5pm. Thru Aug. 11. 221 4th St. at Howard. www.Wunderworld.net

Sun 28 Dolores Deluce @ Green Arcade Books Alunmus of the drag ensemble The Cockettes reads from her new memoir My Life, A Four letter Word, Confessions of a Counter Culture Diva. 5pm. 1680 Market St. at Gough. 431-6800. www.counterculturediva.com

East Bay Queer Book Club @ Books Inc, Alameda Discussions group for LGBT-themed books. 6pm. 1344 Park St. Alameda. (510) 5222226. www.booksinc.net

LGBT Family Day @ Contemporary Jewish Museum The third annual museum day for families, friends and allies, and of course, their kids! Enjoy games, music, and more with community partners Camp Tawonga, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, Keshet, Our Family Coalition, and the SF LGBT Center. A special art-making activity from 12-3pm. Free (18 & under; members) $10-$12. 11am-3pm. 736 Mission St. a 3rd. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Judy Garland: Behind the Wig @ Boxcar Theatre Connie Champagne celebrates the 10-month anniversary of the hit local production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch with a speical Judy-fied version of the behind-the-scenes show that the multiple cast members perform. $7pm. 505 Natoma St. 967-2227. www.boxcartheatre.org

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

Up Your Alley Fair @ Folsom St. @ Dore The annual mini-Folsom Street Fair offers beer and beverage booths, DJed music and outdoor kink galore. Dress up in your leather/kink gear and enjoy the parade of people. Donations at the gate. 11am-6pm. Folsom street, 9th to 11th and Dore. www.folsomstreetevents.org

Mon 29 10 Percent @ Comcast Cable David Perry’s LGBT-themed talk show features a variety of local and visiting guests. This week, Perry talks to Sherry Platt Berman, CEO and co-founder of The Career Wisdom Institute. Perry also chats with Chris Mason Johnson, director of the movie The Test, set in San Francisco’s AIDS era ballet world. Various times thru the week. www.comcasthometown.com www.davidperry.com

Adam Forfang @ John Pence Gallery Exhibit of still life and tromp l’oeil paintings by the local artist. Thru Aug 3. Reg hours Mon-Fri 10am-6pm Sat til 5pm. 750 Post St. 441-1138. www.JohnPence.com

The Bridge Builders @ City Hall New exhibit of Joe Blum’s fascinating large-format photos of the recent construction of the new Bay Bridge. Thru Sept. 27. Weekdays, 9am-5pm. 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, ground floor. www.sfarts.org

Cut & Paste @ Hang Art Exhibit of collage and mixed media art by David King, Phillip Hua and Anthony May. Mon-Sat 10am-6pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. Thru 567 Sutter St. 434-4264. www.hangart.com

How to Make Your Bitterness Work for You @ Stage Werx Theatre Fred Raker’s darkly comic self-help parody solo show. $15. 8pm. Thru Aug. 27. 446 Valencia St. www.bitternesstobetterness.com

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone). 9pm-1:30am. 4 Valencia St. at Market.

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey’s Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gayfriendly comedy night. This week, special guest Wendy Ho! One drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Ramekon O’Arwisters @ African American Art & Culture Complex Sugar in Our Blood: The Spirit of Black and Queer Identity in the Art of Ramekon O’Arwisters, an exhibit of multimedia folk art-inspired wprks by the local gay artist. Tue-Sat 12pm-5pm. 762 Fulton St. Thru Sept. 12. www.ramekon.com

Wed 31 Migrating Archives @ GLBT History Museum Migrating Archives: LGBT Delegates From Collections Around the World features historical items from nearly a dozen countries and archives, each showcasing an archive of prominent LGBT persons. $5. Reg hours Mon & Wed-Sat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistorymuseum.org

One of a Kind @ RayKo Photo Center Group exhibit of unusual photos. Tue-Thu 10am-10pm. Thru Sept 1. Fri-Sun 10am8pm. 428 Third St. 495-3773. www.RayKoPhoto.com

Peter Stackpole: Bridging the Bay @ Oakland Museum Exhibit of 1935-36 photos showcasing the original construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. Thru Jan 12, 2014. Also, the Gallery of California Natural Sciences has been renovated and re-opened. Wed-Sun 11am5pm (Fri til 9pm). Thru June 30. 1000 Oak St. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

Thu 1 Christine Andreas @ Feinstein's at the Nikko Broadway singing star ( La Cage aux Folles, The Light in the Piazza) performs Bemused, her cabaret act featuring a myriad of Broadway classics and American standards. $30-$55. 8pm. $20 food/drink minimum. Also Aug 2 & 3. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. 394-1111. www.hotelnikkosf.com

In the Moment @ Harvey Milk Photo Studio Group exhibit of locally-shot photos; thru Sept. 6. 50 Scott St. 554-9522. www.HarveyMilkPhotoCenter.org

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences New themed event nights at the fascinating new nature museum; plus food, cocktails and DJed dancing. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

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

Richard Diebenkorn @ de Young Museum New exhibit of the painter’s Berkeley Years (1953-1966). Free/$22. Thru Sept 22. Also, Eye Level in Iraq: photographs by Kael Alford and Thorne Anderson. Also, From the Exotic to the Mystical: Textile Treasures from the Permanent Collection, thru Aug 4. Also, Objects of Belief from the Vatican, thru Sept 8. $10-$25. Tue-Sun 9:30am5:15pm. (til 8:45pm Fridays) Thru Dec. 30. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. 750-3600. www.famsf.org

Popular exhibit transforms the floral gallery into a fluttering garden with 20 species of butterflies and moths. 10am-4pm. Free-$7. Tue-Sun 10am-4:30pm. Thru Oct. 20. 100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park. 8312090. www.conservatoryofflowers.org

Andrew Sean Greer, Tue. 30

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

<< Karrnal

28 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2013

Tickle me, Elmo

by John F. Karr

ebar.com

here sure seem to be a lot of foot-fucking scenes being filmed. I guess they’re meant for the fisting crowd – a bit of niche marketing. But to me that niche looks more like a crevasse. All the marketing in the world won’t convince me that sticking a foot up someone’s ass is sexy. Even though the new LucasEntertainment movie Harder Faster Rougher pairs such stars as Adam Killian as the foot top and Jesse Santana as the foot bottom, I couldn’t get much engaged. I guess I just haven’t properly fetishized feet. My fault. I’ll suck me some toe occasionally, but a bare foot doesn’t give me a boner. And while even a short list of things that have been up my ass could provide several new verses for a karaoke My Favorite Things, I hit fast-forward when toes approach tuchas. It’s not that I don’t get the urge to be niched to. That’s when I check out what’s new at Pornteam.com, which distributes an array of companies whose product fills most every niche you could think off. Like, for example, Asian twinks getting tickled. Asian Boy Tickle Party has eight scenes running more than two hours, in a decently produced though no-frills DVD. Since the production goes out of its way to assure us we’re seeing Asians, I don’t know why none of them has an Asiansounding name. Are these kids really Mike, Ricky, Kris, Gil, Coco, or Hermis? Hermis? Where’d they come up with that? There is a Vahn among the guys, which to my limited knowledge sounds Vietnamese. The names don’t really matter. The very young, very slender and entirely smooth-bodied boys look Thai to me. They’re mostly strapped down on a bed or a gurney-like thing. If this seems a good moment for some neat Japanese rope bondage, forget it. The ticklee is secured by packing straps of the sort used by moving men. None too aesthetic. But they’re just a token restraint. Perhaps the producers want to be sure no one mistakes the movie for a bondage flick. A clever bit of confinement finds Gil rolled up in a carpet, leaving visible only the soft, sensitive soles of his feet. Elsewhere, a vibrating massager is used. Some guys get a hand job along with or after tickling. Coco, who stays hard throughout his tickling, jacks off while the soles of his feet are taunted by two guys. The ticklees do have a good time. Yet their tinkly twittering and plentiful giggling is to me like the action: goofy and hardly sexy. Unless you think it’s sexy. If you do, now you know where to indulge this par-

Mysteries

From page 25

The state of Maine was probably named for a French province, and it’s the setting for awardwinning author Eleanor Kuhns’ historical novel Death of a Dyer (Minotaur Books, $24.99). In the last decade of the 18th century, with political and social revolutions still reverberating on both sides of the Atlantic, itinerant weaver Rees, a widower, is happily back home, living with his teenage son David and housekeeper Lydia. He then learns that an old childhood friend, Nate Bowditch, has been found dead under mysterious circumstances. Rees is asked to investigate and cannot refuse. Is Nate’s chilly widow, his missing son, or a timid serving girl guilty

Pornteam

And you thought your sleepover was fun. They can’t stop giggling at Asian Boy Tickle Party.

Pornteam

Brandon plays the good host to Michael in Stocky Dudes’ Cubs and Chubs.

ticular niche longing. When a beard was added to the 70s clone look of jeans and flannel shirt, the result was lumberjack. The guys with that hirsute look became known as bears. In recent years, the look has been co-opted by obese dudes. And more power to them. Since most of the DVDs catering to the bear look sidestep the weight issue, providing belly where one might have been expecting brawn, I was intrigued by the Stocky Dudes website, which makes it the selling point of a DVD like Cubs & Chubs. I don’t know if Brandon Ramm runs the company, but he acts as compere in five of the 75-minute movie’s six scenes. Brandon’s got black hair, a black beard, a moderate amount of body hair, and a considerable amount of body mass. Chubby, yes, but not so much as to obfuscate a decent cock. Brandon’s

fans will note that this is the only video to date in which he bottoms. His top is Marks, who is blondish, 25 years old, and less chubby than hefty. Blake is 27 and nicely furred. He loves getting head. Brandon gives good head, and for his efforts gets a thick load. Next up is Joey, an uncut Latin bottom. Publicity praises his bubble butt, but it’s really more of a dirigible butt. Brandon gets his face in there, and dines for days. Finally, there’s exhibitionist McQuaig, who has an attractive, stoutly-headed cock which delivers its gushing goods to Brandon’s open jaw. Rusty McMahon is a big, gingerhaired chub with a bit of grey in his goatee and a pierced cock. His dark-haired buddy Ace is a cuddly cub bottom with some hot tattoos. They gobble cock, and their sex gets a little acrobatic when Ace gets pounded.t

of homicide? Or are less obvious people responsible? Kuhns’ characters are engaging, and she expertly recreates the world of the Shakers, today best-known for their simple furniture. Nothing could be more different from Shaker simplicity than modern-day Venice, with its baroque facades, endangered piazzas and canals, hordes of tourists, noble families, and rampant corruption. No one understands this world better than Donna Leon, and her latest Inspector Guido Brunetti mystery, The Golden Egg (Atlantic Monthly Press, $26), is among the most fascinating in her series. Brunetti’s handsome, stylish, pompous boss, Vice-Questore Patta, asks Brunetti to look into a minor affair that will earn him a politi-

cal favor. Brunetti’s wife Paola, daughter of a count, a socialist, and a college professor teaching reluctant students the virtues of Henry James, wants him to check into the odd death of an employee at their dry cleaners. While many people knew the man, officially he never existed. No birth certificate, passport, credit card, identification – nothing to prove he ever lived. The dead man’s mother won’t talk to the police. As usual, once Brunetti starts an investigation, it is difficult to predict where it will end. He may clash with the aristocratic and still powerful Lembos family. Brunetti is a sympathetic, engaging sleuth. Leon’s unequalled recreation of Venice captures its stunning beauty and shocking decadence.t

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July 25-31, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 29

Dore, Dore, Dore! by Scott Brogan

t’s that time of summer again! The annual Up Your Alley (aka Dore Alley) Street Fair is upon us. The actual fair is this Sunday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on Dore Alley between Howard and Folsom, and continuing on Folsom from 9th St. to Juniper and an adjoining block of 10th St. I love Up Your Alley because it comes at the end of July, and we never know just what the weather will be like. Hopefully it’ll be warm and sunny, but even if it is, expect the coolness to set in around 5 p.m. Of course, it’s not just the fair itself that’s happening. There are a lot of additional events all weekend long. Some are “official” events sanctioned and/or produced by the gang at Folsom Street Events (the masterminds behind both the Folsom Street Fair and Up Your Alley). Go to FolsomStreetEvents.org for more information and details. The following is your guide to the main events, in chronological order to help you plan your weekend. Clip it out, or print it. Enjoy, be safe, and tear it up a little! Thurs., July 25: 4th Annual 2013 BLUF Dinner, 7-10 p.m., Don Ramon’s Mexican Restaurante, 225 11th St., SF. $30 cash at the door, includes $5 for Openhouse (services and housing for LGBT seniors). Informal modeling by Troy Anicete Designs. Handball Academy, 7:30-9:30 p.m., Center for Sex & Culture, 1349 Mission. Everything you’ve always wanted to know about fisting, but were afraid to ask. www. hellholesf.com. Gearwear, 9 p.m.-2 a.m. at The Powerhouse, 1347 Folsom St. Hosted by LUNA and Troy Anicete, Bootblacking by Ms. V. DJ DAM-

In the Moment

From page 22

world defined by deftly applied, subtly shaded ink strokes. Sitting warily in the left corner, a tiger (the controller of earth, according to Taoist philosophy), with glowing ember eyes and heaving chest, props himself up on his massive haunches on the edge of a precipice and waits while the fire-breather on the right (commander of the heavens) descends from the sky, nostrils flared, to peer at his earthbound foe. One of two chums in “Tigers” (1779) looks quizzically at the viewer, his striped tail curling up between his back legs like a common house cat; his partner, mean-

Courtesy Mr. S Leather

Things heat up at the Mr. S Leather booth at last year’s Up Your Alley Street Fair.

nation in the house! Gear contest, Gear and Underwear Drink Specials, Gear-up go-gos, prizes from 9x6 Lube, Steamworks and $100 for the best geared kinkster! Fri., July 26: The Rubber Men of San Francisco (RMSF) present Ignition - Meet and Greet at Worn Out West 2nd Generation, 2352 Market St. www.rmsf.org/dore-weekend/. RMSF presents Kinkopoly, 3-5 p.m. Get your game board at Worn Out West and other retailers. www.rmsf. org/dore-weekend/ Paws Up Puppy Dinner for Pups & Handlers presented by the K-9 Unit of SF, 6:30-9 p.m. Don Ramon’s Mexican Restaurante,  225 11th St. Tickets: sfk9unit. brownpapertickets.com Up Yours by Hell Hole, 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Mr. S Leather Playspace, 385A 8th St. This is a private, men’s-only fisting party. To subscribe, go to: www.hellholesf.com/ invitationform.htm Sat., July 27: Beers, Boys and Bondage: Mr. S Leather In-Store Party, 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Mr. S Leather, 385 8th St. www.mr-s-leather.com The San Francisco Men’s Spanking Party, 1-6 p.m. The Power Exchange, 220 Jones St. This is a male-

only event. www.voy.com/201188/ Saturday Afternoon Cigar & Pipe Social presented by the Bay Area Cigar Buddies, 3-6 p.m. SF Eagle, 398 12th St. (at Harrison). Beer bust, raffle, and free food. RMSF presents Back Dore Alley: Annual Rubber Party, 5-9 p.m. at The Powerhouse, 1347 Folsom St. www.rmsf.org/dore-weekend/. Bay of Pigs, the official Saturday night event of Up Your Alley weekend and the weekend’s hottest fetish party. 10 p.m.-4 a.m. 525 Harrison St. Featuring DJs Frank Wild and Eddie Martinez. Sexy dancers, demos, and play spaces. Tickets at: www. eventbrite.com/org/2427887070. 15 Association Men’s BDSM Play Event, 8 p.m.-1 a.m. SF Citadel Dungeon, 181 Eddy St. www.15sf. org. Sun., July 28: Up Your Alley Fair, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Dore Alley between Howard and Folsom, and Folsom from 9th St. to Juniper. Play T-Dance: The Black Party Up Your Alley Closing Party, 5 p.m.11:55 a.m. at the Mezzanine, 444 Jesse St. Tickets: www.ticketfly.com/ event/284513?utm_source=PLAY. RMSF presents Phoenix2 - Annual Rubber Code Play Party, 6-10 p.m.  Mr. SPlayspace,  385 8th St. www.rmsf.org/dore-weekend/.t

while, has turned away and hunches over, its soft, thickly textured fur begging to be stroked, if anyone would dare. The not-so-cuddly dragon, a recurring symbol of the heavens and imperial power, takes center stage in Katsushika Hokusai’s ink-and-gold hanging scroll (1839), where a crusty, aging creature with a spiky, sinewy tail and ancient eyes, perhaps an avatar of the elderly artist who painted him, emerges grouchy and none-toofriendly from a dark, swirling cloud as if awakened from a deep sleep. Ito Jakuchu, an 18th-century Kyoto-based member of an idiosyncratic cadre nicknamed “the eccentrics,” gives

us “Mynah Bird in a Persimmon Tree” (1763), a stark, abstract work with a poetic inscription and a dash of black suggesting a bird burrowing into itself to ward off the chill of autumn, its spindly feet perched on a bare branch. Spare, remarkably contemporary and humorous, Jakuchu’s “White Elephant” (1768) is a lumbering creature so large and unsteady on its mammoth feet that its hulking mass threatens to burst the boundaries of the hanging scroll its cartoonish image appears on. According to Buddhist tradition, the elephant is a sacred emblem of wisdom and power, but this particular pachyderm bears a closer kinship to Horton Hears A Who. (June 28-Sept. 22) t

SFJFF

From page 24

nah Arendt is receiving the news of the capture of Nazi Holocaust architect Adolph Eichmann, in Argentina by Israeli intelligence agents. The legendary director Margarethe von Trotta returns with Fassbinder regular Barbara Sukowa as the philosopher who coined the term “the banality of evil” while covering the Eichmann trial for The New Yorker. As editor Wallace Shawn suggests sending the famed scholar to cover the Jerusalem trial, a colleague sniffs, “Philosophers don’t make deadlines!” (Castro, 7/28) The Producers “If you’ve got it baby, flaunt it!” Proudly vulgar con man Max Bialystock is back, and with him some of the screen’s most vulgar gags, performed by an overthe-top cast of theatrical Nazis, flaming transvestites, and a Greek chorus of rich and horny little old ladies. Mel Brooks’ classic swindler’s farce

Courtesy SF Jewish Film Fest

Or in director Shirly Berkovitz’s Lies in the Closet.

highlights the Festival’s Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy series, with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broder-

ick reprising their stage roles. (Grand Lake, 8/11)t www.sfjff.org

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30 • Bay Area Reporter • July 25-31, 2013

Courtesy Connie Champagne

Connie Champagne is ready for her close-up in An Evening with Judy Garland, to benefit Boxcar Theatre.

Theatergoer returns

From page 21

presents itself as first on this list, and while this particular musical may not necessarily be a first choice, a down and dirty production is promised as enticement. Director Bill English got permission to cut dialogue (hooray) and add two songs cut before the show opened on Broadway (hmm). Look for a review next week. With this personal preamble at its conclusion, it is time to return to our regularly scheduled gathering of the news.

Champagne reception

In so far as I was bemoaning the lack of Judy Garland at Davies (of all hospitals!), it is a pleasure to report that Connie Champagne will be back as said legend in a cabaret performance on July 28. An Evening with Judy Garland takes place at, and will benefit, the Boxcar Theatre, where Hedwig and the Angry Inch is now in its eighth month. Champagne joined the cast of Hedwig in May as one of the eight performers sharing the title role (a multiphasic change sanctioned by creator John Cameron Mitchell, who went solo in the original production). Champagne will be joined onstage by Teresa Attridge and Erica Richardson, fellow Hedwigs, and will perform a special Judy version of the score’s “Wig in a Box” on which she collaborated with Mitchell. Tickets are available at boxcartheatre.org.

Perils of Pauline

Many, many years ago, when I began playing at being a reviewer, a journalist-friend advised me to read Pauline Kael’s film criticism. A few years later, his advice was to stop reading Pauline Kael’s film criticism. Such were the powers of Kael’s enchantment and alienation

on readers. When asked why she had never written an autobiography, Kael replied, “I think I have.” The voice that Kael revealed in her vast body of work – will her alleged homophobia be acknowledged? – is being corralled into a one-woman show having performances on Aug. 5 and 6 at the Ashby Stage. Performed by Mary Baird and adapted and directed by Joe Christiano, Love in the Dark: Pauline Kael at the Movies is being presented by Shotgun Cabaret and First Person Singular. Tickets at shotgunplayers.org.

Block party

There are two very good reasons to visit the 2000 block of Berkeley’s Addison Street in the coming days and weeks. The cheek-byjowl Aurora and Berkeley Repertory theaters are, respectively, finishing an acclaimed run and beginning a starry hot-ticket production. Both plays happen to have been written by notorious shit-stirrers. At Aurora, glowing reviews and positive word of mouth have led to an extension of Neil LaBute’s This Is How It Goes, which must end its run on July 28. LaBute is the author of such button-pushing plays as Fat Pig, Reasons to Be Pretty, and In the Company of Men. In This Is How It Goes, LaBute slams his way into the racial divide. Tickets at auroratheatre.org. Berkeley Rep has snagged a preBroadway engagement of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land with a cast guaranteed to turn heads – and sell tickets. Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart play two literary doyens who may be jailer and captive or perhaps just old pals from college. This new relationship upsets two minions played by Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley. The run is set for Aug. 3-31, and at this point only season subscribers can score tickets. More info at berkeleyrep.org.t

The late film critic Pauline Kael reveals her life through her reviews in an adaptation of her work being staged at Ashby Stage.

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