May 1, 2014 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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SJ Pride rebrands itself

by Heather Cassell

I

t’s a new day for San Jose Pride as the organization changes its name to Silicon Valley Pride for a more inclusive South Bay focus.

There hasn’t been a big splashy affair to roll out the rebranding of the South Bay’s Jo-Lynn Otto Pride festival, but Silicon Valley Pride there are big changes board President afoot within the orga- Thaddeus Campbell nization.

The Gay Pride Celebration Committee of San Jose Inc., commonly known as San Jose Pride, officially filed its legal name change to Silicon Valley Pride with the Santa Clara County Registrar’s Office in January, according to the registrar’s office.

A new board has been actively engaged in developing the new branding of Silicon Valley Pride, while planning events and gearing up for the 39th annual celebration.

This year’s festival will take place Sunday, August 17 at Discovery Meadow in San Jose, the same venue as previous festivals. A theme for this year has not yet been selected.

“We want to take a different direction and a new approach and get more community involvement and more community input,” said interim Pride board President Thaddeus Campbell, a 58-year-old gay man who is serving his first year on the board. “We want to be more inclusive of the other cities around San Jose. We have to reach out and bring in the cities that surround us.

“We don’t all live and play exclusively in San Jose,” Campbell added.

There was an air of excitement around the table at the Billy De Frank LGBT Center as six of the seven new Silicon Valley Pride board members and several community members deftly maneuvered through a business meeting in early April.

The board has been meeting weekly since the beginning of the year to fill positions and ramp up and revive the South Bay’s Pride festival.

As in recent years, August’s festival will be a one-day event. There hasn’t been a Pride parade in San Jose since 2009.

Troubled past

The rebranding effort is also seen as a fresh start by the organization.

Former San Jose Pride board President Nathan Svoboda, who took over leadership of the organization in 2011 and termed out October 31, 2013, had a rocky tenure as the group dealt with fallout from the economic crisis, high board turnover, and accusations See page 6 >>

Vol. 44 • No. 18 • May 1-7, 2014

Tenants seek support for tax measure

by David-Elijah Nahmod

F

ed up with high rents and the uptick in evictions, about 150 housing activists and tenants gathered across the street from San Francisco City Hall last weekend to kick off a campaign for a planned November ballot measure that would tax real estate speculators.

Senior residents, including LGBTs, were well represented, along with members of the Latino and Asian communities. These groups, particularly in the Mission District and Chinatown, have seen an ongoing spike in Ellis Act evictions across their neighborhoods.

LGBT people from the Castro and Lower Haight neighborhoods were also out in force.

There was anger, tears, and a fierce determination in the faces and voices of the protesters, who were there to advocate placing an anti-speculator tax on the November ballot. It is not clear whether advocates will gather signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot or if members of the Board of Supervisors will place it on the ballot.

The measure would impose a tax on the profits of those who sell buildings immediately after buying them. The sooner after purchasing a building and then selling it, the higher the tax would be. Buildings sold within two years of purchase could face a 50 percent tax on their profits. The purpose of the measure

Alison Wright, part of a lesbian couple being evicted, points to the location of her home on a map of Ellis Act evictions.

Jane Philomen Cleland

is to help stem the tide of Ellis Act evictions.

Passed in 1985, the Ellis Act is a state law that allows landlords to get out of the rental business and evict tenants. The tenants receive some compensation; new legislation

by Supervisor David Campos would see that compensation increase substantially.

In recent years, housing advocates have accused some out of town real estate developers of purchasing multiple buildings, then invoking the Ellis Act in order to evict tenants. Then they often resell the buildings for huge profits.

Housing activists argue that these devel-

opers were never in the rental business at all.

These evictions, many say, unfairly target seniors, the disabled, people of color and people living with HIV/AIDS, many of whom are on fixed incomes and have nowhere else to go.

“Stopping speculation is the most important thing we can do to help stop the evictions and gentrification,” said Tommi Avicolli Mecca of the Housing Rights Committee. “If it becomes non-profitable to evict people and flip buildings, then hopefully we have a chance to preserve our neighborhoods and our city.”

See page 9 >>

Lesbian teacher fights for her job back

by Matthew S. Bajko

W

hen Julia Frost applied for a teaching position with the Hesperia Unified School District, she figured it would be a perfect place to work. The district’s Sultana High School was only 25 miles from her home in Wrightwood, nestled in southern California’s San Gabriel Mountains.

“It was close to home and I was familiar with the area,” said Frost. “I had no idea of the problems at the school.”

Her first inkling after being hired to teach English in August 2011 came when Frost revealed she had a female partner to a co-worker and within days was called to the principal’s office for a meeting.

“He couldn’t say the word partner. He stuttered through it,” Frost, 42, recalled during an interview last week with the Bay Area Reporter.

“It was really, really uncomfortable and degrading.”

Asked by a straight co-worker to help advise the school’s gay-straight alliance, Frost was soon being approached by students who complained of being bullied and harassed by other teachers and school administrators. Their complaints included teachers using “that’s so gay” in class and harassing a lesbian gender-nonconforming student elected homecoming queen.

When they tried to file official complaints about the abusive behavior, the students were rebuffed, they said, by school administrators and sought Frost’s assistance. She in turn

Bill Wilson

Teacher Julia Frost

reached out to the teacher’s union and met with school officials in the fall of 2012 to discuss the matter and what steps needed to be taken to protect LGBT students as required under California law.

“My legal responsibility was to provide them a classroom free of harassment and to intervene because of Seth’s Law in incidents of harassment or bullying,” said Frost, who was in San Francisco to address attendees at an April 25 fundraiser for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Yet the anti-gay comments and policies at

Sultana High persisted, according to Frost, who continued to assist students’ efforts to file complaints about the homophobic behaviors.

In return, school administrators accused her of “teaching homosexuality,” said Frost.

Then in February 2013 Frost, who had been hired on a probationary-status with the expectation of obtaining tenure within two years, was informed her teaching contract would not be renewed.

“I was told my contract was not being renewed, and knowing exactly why that was, was the worst moment,” said Frost. “Not because of anything other than the fact they are completely repulsed by having a lesbian at their school. It was nothing to do with a professional matter but who you are and how you were born. It was shocking.”

The anti-gay atmosphere at the school led the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California and the law firm of Nixon Peabody LLP to become involved in March of last year. By August 2013 the school district and the legal groups announced a series of steps that would be taken at Hesperia’s various school sites to foster a more welcoming environment for LGBT and gender non-conforming students.

Last November Frost, who remains unemployed, sued the Hesperia school district in San Bernardino Superior Court with the assistance of Lambda Legal and Pasadena law firm Traber and Voorhees in order to get her job back.

See page 10 >>

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<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 1-7, 2014

Lambda aims for full equality for LGBTs

by Gregory J. Pleshaw

O

ne of the LGBT community’s top public interest legal organizations held its annual San Francisco benefit where leaders pointed to gay teachers and students as the next frontier in advocacy work.

About 400 supporters of New York-based Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund turned out at CityView at the Metreon, where Executive Director Kevin Cathcart said that while “tremendous progress” has been made in areas like samesex marriage, equality needs to be achieved in other areas.

“Lambda’s mission remains that we’re aiming for full equality for LGBT people through the United States,” said Cathcart.

Cathcart proceeded to outline the predominant theme of the evening’s message, which is that there’s still a lot to be done in the schools, both for LGBT teachers and LGBT students as well.

The featured guest at the April 25 Soiree was Julia Frost, an out lesbian English teacher who taught at Sultana High School in Hesperia, California from 2011-2013. Located in San Bernardino County, about 90 minutes from Los Angeles, Sultana has become a legal battleground after the school district refused to renew Frost’s teacher contract after she helped gay students seek redress stemming from discriminatory actions by the school.

[See story, page 1.]

Jennifer C. Pizer, senior counsel and director of Lambda’s Law and Policy Project, pointed out that while many people within both the LGBT and the mainstream press may perceive that marriage equality is the only issue for organizations like Lambda Legal, the reality is that the LGBT civil rights agenda also focuses on a wide array of issues, including marriage, jobs, housing, schools, and a host of other aspects of a human life.

Bill Wilson

Lambda Legal Executive Director Kevin Cathcart

“At Lambda Legal, our docket is broad, with 90 cases in active litigation that touch on every aspect of human living,” said Pizer. “Our overall goal is to establish full equality and respect from cradle-to-grave for all LGBT people throughout the United States. This particular case points to the need to establish precedent and case law that will enable a respectful environment for both teachers and students within our schools.”

Introducing Frost was Kyle Bodda, a student from the gay-straight alliance at Sultana High who praised Frost for her leadership and guidance.

Among those in attendance was Robert Owens, a board member of Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights and a longtime member of that organization. Although BAPHR was founded to address the right of the LGBT community to have access to LGBT-friendly doctors, he was also affected by the issue of equality for teachers in his own life, as he was not out publicly as a gay doctor until 1994, owing to his partner’s position as a primary school teacher and the fear that be-

t

ing out would ruin his partner’s career.

“I’ve been a supporter of Lambda since around the time they began,” he said. “As a legal apparatus, it helps to make sure that LGBT legal rights have a voice in the courts.”

Ron Petty and Reg Medellin were also there showing their support at the event. Recent transplants to the Bay Area from New Orleans, the pair was originally from New York City during the 1940s and 1950s, and they waxed not-so-nostalgically about life before LGBT rights took center stage.

“There was a whole underground bar and restaurant scene called ‘the Bird Circuit,’” said Petty. “You heard about it from word of mouth – there were no publications – and when the police got a handle on a place, they’d walk in with flashlights and interrogate men who were touching each other.”

While progress has clearly been made in some arenas of LGBT life, there are still myriad issues that arise and are decided in the courts.

“The message of this case is particularly onerous,” said Cathcart, referring to Frost. “Having a teacher fired for being a lesbian doesn’t just mean a teacher is in jeopardy over their identity – it says to the kids that their identities are also at risk, and that the protections simply aren’t there for any student or teacher, gay or straight.”

In the case of Frost, non-renewal of her contract wasn’t the only repercussion of her actions – she has also been unable to find work as a teacher ever since. And her cars and home in a community near Hesperia were also vandalized and covered with homophobic slurs.

“California is a wonderful place to live and work,” she said when she took to the podium, “with great laws on the books protecting LGBT people. But it’s important to remember that these things can – and do – still happen here.”t

Castro sober space reopens

by Sean Piverger

O

n a cool Friday night, the Castro Country Club, a clean and sober house that’s located in San Francisco’s Castro district, reopened its doors to the public. The event centered on the remodeled house and the 31st anniversary of the nonprofit.

In an e-mail, manager Terry Beswick said that he is happy about the renovation work that was done.

“It feels fantastic. I feel like I am living in a dream every time I walk in the club,” Beswick said. “For me personally, it is the culmination of five years of work, and I am very proud of that.”

The country club was founded by Steve Harris in 1983. Since then it has been a part of the LGBT community by providing a sanctuary for those who are recovering from drugs and alcohol. Some 35 weekly meetings in 12-step groups are offered to people, including Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Crystal Meth Anonymous, Al-Anon (a 12-step program for friends and family of alcoholics), Overeaters Anonymous, and Codependents Anonymous.

In addition to unstructured peer counseling the country club also provides job training and skillsbuilding along with social support and fellowship.

“These groups have hundreds of meetings across the city every week,” Beswick said. “They are not self-help groups, and they are not treatment professionals. They are

Rick Gerharter

With paintings by Donald Rizzo adorning the walls, people enjoy the expanded and remodeled cafe seating area at the Castro Country Club.

about one addict or alcoholic helping another. The only requirement for membership in each of these groups is a desire to stop drinking or using, one day at a time.”

The April 25 grand reopening started off with a reception for Don Rizzo’s “Shades of Purple” art show followed by an appearance from Cheer San Francisco. Afterwards the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence blessed the house. The blessing took place in the Stuart Morrison Smith Memorial Meeting Room, which was dedicated to the late Stu Smith, a former country club advisory board member and longtime gay community leader who died in February.

In a news release, Beswick said

that the place was fully operational and ready for action.

“That includes the cafe, the meeting room, and the new outdoor patio. The grand reopening is our chance to show off the space and the new menu to our community of supporters and to let everyone know that we are open for business,” he said.

The country club, which resides in a 1901 Victorian house, had struggled in recent years to remain open.

In 2009, the club was in danger of losing its home. During the recession, the house was on the market after the owner died. Although the club raised over $200,000 in small donations, it was not enough beSee page 10 >>

t

Community News>>

May 1-7, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Lawsuit: Work at Lexus shop included anti-gay remarks

by Seth Hemmelgarn

C

urrent and former workers at the Lexus car dealership in Concord allege that an ex-manager made anti-gay and racist remarks, used death threats, and participated in wage theft.

In a $21 million civil lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California workers claim that former manager Patrick Miliano daily used words such as “faggots,” “homo,” and the n-word to refer to customers and employees, threatened to kill at least two staffers and their families, and engaged in fraud that involved requiring workers of the East Bay shop to pay income taxes on inflated wages that they didn’t actually receive.

Robert Brock Jr. is the lead plaintiff in the case and remains employed at the dealership, as does Jeffery Lao. The lawsuit says Kamal Dayekh and Amanda Bo Denton were wrongfully terminated and Christopher Montoya, Francisco Ubaldo, and Wilson Woo quit.

Brock and Dayekh’s spouses are also listed as plaintiffs.

Miliano, who has left the dealership; Greg James, who remains the shop’s general manager; and owner Hank Torian are named individually as defendants, along with Concord Automobile Dealership LLC doing business as Lexus of Concord LLC; and Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc. Miliano and James couldn’t be reached on the phone and their representatives have issued only limited responses.

The lawsuit claims violations of federal and state labor law, fraud, threat of workplace violence, and discrimination.

Name-calling and threats

Miliano, who allegedly “had a fascination with talking about penises,” according to the lawsuit, focused on Montoya and Woo “in particular, calling Mr. Woo a cyborg, homo, faggot, or little bitch.”

In at least one instance, Miliano “taunted” Montoya and Woo by calling them “little pecker,” the complaint says.

Miliano unzipped his pants, stuck his hand in, and wiggled “his finger through the open front, laughing that they had little penises,” accord-

ing to the filing.

In an interview, Woo, 38, who’s straight and lives in San Francisco, said the “hostile” environment was “pretty tough” and “mentally stressful.”

According to the complaint, on March 13, Miliano “stormed into” Brock’s office, angry about an anonymous email that had been sent out on the alleged wage theft.

“I know you sent this fucking email to management,” Miliano said, the complaint says. “I’m going to kill you. I am going to hunt you down, and I’m going to kill your wife, and I’m going to kill your kids.”

Moments after the Bay Area Reporter sent Miliano a Facebook message requesting an interview Tuesday, April 29, he appeared to have blocked general public access to his profile on the social media site.

The complaint alleges that James, who is the dealership’s general manager and who didn’t respond to an interview request Tuesday, “protected” Miliano “and participated in the

Jane Philomen Cleland

Plaintiffs Kamal Dayekh, left, and Amanda Denton spoke with reporters at an April 29 news conference across the street from the Lexus dealership in Concord. They were joined by attorneys Karen Gill and Charles Bonner.

See page 10 >>

Trial opens in Mission slaying

by Seth Hemmelgarn

T

he trial of the man accused of fatally strangling and robbing another man in San Francisco’s Mission district in 2012 began this week.

Roland Pouncy, 44, is charged with murder and robbery in the death of Richard Sprague, 47. Prosecutors say that hours after Sprague left his domestic partner’s side to buy cigarettes, Pouncy attacked and killed him. Sprague was found dead outside 125 Julian Street.

As the trial got under way in San Francisco Superior Court Monday, April 28, Lilia Puch, who lived near where Sprague’s body was found, testified that she’d been awakened at 2:40 a.m. by a man screaming, and she lay in bed for several minutes as he called for help.

“I didn’t know what to do, because I was scared,” Puch said, speaking through a Spanish interpreter. But “suddenly, things calmed down.” She looked out her window, and saw one man was on top of another “and had him around the neck.” Puch still didn’t call for help.

Sprague’s body remained on the sidewalk for hours. Another woman, Sandra Jackson, told jurors that she saw the body there at about 6:30 a.m. on her way to get coffee. He was still there about an hour later, and she called 911.

Sprague’s longtime partner, Da-

vid Nielsen, almost broke phen Rosen said there’s down Monday when As“no way to tell” where on sistant District Attorney Sprague the DNA had acJohn Rowland showed him tually come from. a photograph of Sprague Rosen said the case in which Sprague lay on is “filled with sadness” the sidewalk with his arms for all involved. Pouncy, spread out, two reddish who is in custody, wore marks on his forehead. a beige sweater vest and Rowland said that poa black rosary as the trial Courtesy SFPD lice arrested Pouncy after Defendant began. He was homeless they had seen him jay- Roland Pouncy and stayed near 16th and walking near Mission and Mission streets.

16th streets early in the “Poverty causes desafternoon on the day Sprague was peration sometimes, and unfortukilled. He had Sprague’s Wells Fargo nate acts,” said Rosen. debit card with him.

He said Pouncy came upon Bank records indicate the card was Sprague’s body early that mornused at the McDonald’s near 16th ing, but the defendant didn’t know and Mission, near where Sprague when, since he hadn’t been wearwas found, several times beginning ing a watch. He checked for a pulse, at 7:25 that morning, said Rowland. but didn’t feel anything. Then he Surveillance video from McDonpulled out a bankcard from one of ald’s shows a man police Inspector Sprague’s pockets, and moved on.

John Cagney identified as Pouncy in But Rosen noted, “He doesn’t flee, the restaurant around those times. and he doesn’t destroy the evidence.”

Rowland said video footage also indiRosen said that Puch had first cates Pouncy was present at a neightold officers that the assailant had borhood shoe store that day when been wearing all black, but Pouncy someone attempted to use the card. had been wearing blue jeans and A criminalist testified during lime green shoes. the 2012 preliminary hearing that During her testimony, Puch did she’d matched Pouncy to the killnot specifically identify Pouncy as ing after analyzing DNA samples the man she’d seen, according to from Pouncy’s fingers and Sprague’s Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the neck, among other evidence. district attorney’s office.

In his opening statements MonThe trial is expected to conclude day, Deputy Public Defender SteThursday. Pouncy is likely to testify.t

Good Samaritans help distressed trans person off overpass

by Seth Hemmelgarn

T

he person who threatened to jump from an Interstate 580 overpass in Oakland last week identifies as trans/genderqueer, according to a transgender advocate who says she spoke with the person.

Oakland police “received multiple calls” at 1:04 p.m. Thursday, April 24 “regarding an individual threatening to jump from the Ardley Overpass” onto I-580, police said in a news release.

Paramedics and others responded to the scene, where a group of citizens reached through the overpass bars, then grabbed and held the person until police and fire department personnel “could safely remove the individual from the overpass,” police said.

The portion of the freeway in the

vicinity of the incident was closed for about a half-hour, police said.

In a Facebook post Thursday, Tiffany Woods, TransVision programs manager at Fremont’s Tri-City Health Center, said Officer Johnna Watson, an Oakland Police Department spokeswoman, requested her assistance.

Woods said the person prefers the pronoun “they,” identifies as “trans/ genderqueer,” and is 21. She said she met with the person, whose name hasn’t been released, at Alameda County Medical Center for an hour and a half.

Oakland police didn’t specify the gender of the person in their news release.

“They has a history of being bullied,” Woods said, and the person lacks family support around gender identity and other issues. She said she let the

person “know that I and others care and that everyone matters and has a gift to offer. We just have to find it.”

The person “is not getting the proper and much-needed support, in a county with very little resources that can handle multiple issues in one young person,” said Woods.

She also said Oakland police handled the situation “very well,” and medical center staff “was great and very responsive.”

In an email exchange with the Bay Area Reporter, Woods said she didn’t have any way to contact the person.

She added, “What I do not want is: ‘Transgender/Genderqueer person attempts suicide’. This should not be sensationalized.”

Oakland police officials didn’t respond to requests for comment Monday. t

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<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 1-7, 2014

Volume 44, Number 18 May 1-7, 2014 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • David Guarino Peter Hernandez • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • David Lamble Michael McAllister • Michael McDonagh David-Elijah Nahmod • Elliot Owen Paul Parish • Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Philip Ruth • Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Ed Walsh • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland Rick Gerharter • Lydia Gonzales Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Steven Underhill Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.359.2612 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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It’s all about the money

L

ast week’s vote in the state Senate on a bill to require antitheft technology on smartphones fell two votes short thanks to the deeppocketed cellphone industry and several lawmakers who voted with their political contributors instead of the public interest.

Chief among those politicians was gay state Senator Ricardo Lara (Los Angeles), who was one of the handful of Democrats to vote against the bill. From all accounts, the bill’s author, gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) thought he had the necessary 21 votes and it’s likely he wasn’t counting on Republican support, so the turnaround by Lara and the other Democrats is particularly galling. It was blatant personal interest above the public good. And lest people think smartphone theft isn’t a big deal, the numbers show otherwise.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who has taken on smartphone theft as a major issue, along with the New York attorney general, is adamant that the problem is at the root of the majority of robberies in the city. Sometimes these robberies turn violent as the perpetrators wrestle with or physically assault victims to get the phone out of their hands.

But it’s not just San Francisco.

According to Consumer Reports, smartphone theft nearly doubled nationwide from 1.6 million in 2012 to 3.1 million in 2013.

“Wireless customers are being targeted for their devices because the industry has failed to deploy existing safeguards in a manner

that will end the surge of street crimes that often turn violent,” Gascón and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a recent joint news release.

As Gascón told us several months ago, technology exists now for a so-called kill switch, but the wireless industry has resisted any broad attempt to make that standard on all smartphones. And why would they? Smartphone theft is practically part of the phone companies’ business model. A recent cover story in SF Weekly reported that smartphone theft is a lucrative business, “and not just for the smalltime crooks...”

The manufacturer profits because the person whose phone was stolen needs a new one, and of course that usually means entering into a new two-year contract with the wireless company. Then there’s the account that’s opened

t

by whomever ends up with the stolen phone.

Consumer Reports noted that according to a study recently released by William Duckworth, Ph.D., an associate professor at Creighton University’s Heider College of Business, consumers lose about $2.5 billion per year through the combined cost of replacing stolen phones and taking out premium insurance on their new phones.

The wireless industry keeps this vicious cycle going by making donations to lawmakers. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that on the day of the vote last week, more than 20 lobbyists were working the halls outside the chambers, “urging lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to vote no.” According to Maplight.com, the telecommunications industry donated $1.35 million to state senators, with about half of that coming from AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile.

Leno hopes to bring his bill back for another vote later this month. Those Democrats who weren’t with him the first time need to reassess their position and vote for the bill. In addition to Lara they include Democratic state Senators Jim Beall (San Jose) and Norma Torres (Pomona).

Most of us have smartphones and most of us store a lot of personal information on our devices. Replacing one is not only expensive, but can open people up to identity theft. State lawmakers have a chance to actually help people by making the wireless industry do something that it apparently refuses to do on its own – including a kill switch would make smartphones virtually worthless to thieves.t

The three-David race for Assembly

by Patrick Monette-Shaw

T

he primary election June 3 to replace Assemblyman Tom Ammiano isn’t a tale of two Davids. It’s a tale of three.

There’s one even-keeled David Campos.

Then there’s the temperamental David Chiu, who may have a “good-David, bad-David” disorder of two Davids living in a single body.

The Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club co-chairs’ guest opinion in the Bay Area Reporter’s April 10 issue made me laugh. It cited not one piece of LGBT-related legislation authored by Chiu. It claims Chiu deserves “reward” for merely “standing by” LGBT communities, and asserted Chiu’s a “master of the legislative process.”

It failed mentioning he’s also master at subverting legislative processes.

A week later, the B.A.R. published another guest opinion co-authored by a coalition of Latinos who endorsed Campos, presenting reasons why retaining the assembly seat with an LGBT candidate is crucial.

Chiu claims he’s a “consensus builder” changing the “tone of local government.” Chiu appears to have engaged in potentially highly unethical behavior while board president.

Take Chiu’s role in the Park Merced development deal. On November 1, 2011 the Sunshine Task Force issued its Order of Determination finding Supervisor Eric Mar, chair of the Land Use Committee; board President Chiu; and committee members Supervisors Scott Wiener and Malia Cohen violated several sections of the Sunshine Ordinance by failing to provide the public with copies of 14 pages of amendments to the development agreement until just minutes before voting on them.

The task force referred the four supervisors to the Ethics Commission and district attorney, citing willful failure (to comply with the Sunshine Ordinance) and official misconduct.

Take Chiu’s abuse of Board of Supervisors Rules of Order. As recently as February 20, 2014, Chiu submitted a “Presidential Action” memo transferring lobbyist regulation legislation from the Rules Committee to the Government Audit and Oversight Committee.

The lobbying regulations should have been heard at Rules, but Chiu may have abused his discretion transferring the proposed lobbying

California Pacific Medical Center amendments to GAO. to build its Van Ness hospital, it Take Chiu’s treatment of memwas the leadership of Campos and bers of the public who attend board Supervisor John Avalos who suchearings. Chiu is well known for cessfully forced the mayor into rearbitrarily reducing the number of negotiating with CPMC. CPMC minutes each speaker is permitted was forced to commit to rebuilding to testify, and remotely turning off St. Luke’s Hospital, which the mayor the speaker’s microphone when he appeared willing to allow CPMC to doesn’t like public testimony being abandon. presented. Chiu had a well-behaved Rick Gerharter The Bay Times also ran frontmember of the public fully within his David Campos page, side-by-side articles by the First Amendment, free speech rights two Davids on April 17. escorted out of board chambers by In his Bay Times “selfie,” Chiu mentions a uniformed sheriff’s deputy – because Chiu not one piece of legislation he introduced on didn’t like the testimony. behalf of LGBT communities. Chiu brazenly In contrast, Campos actively listens wrapped himself in assassinated Supervisor to public testimony and thanks preHarvey Milk’s legacy, implying Milk’s ability to senters. build consensus and coalitions has somehow Chiu is notorious for moving the rubbed off on Chiu. Unfortunately, there was public comment period around dura whole lot more to Milk that appears didn’t ing board meetings, making it imrub off on Chiu. possible to estimate at what time In stark contrast, Campos’s piece clearly deduring the board’s Tuesday meetscribes his initial legislative ideas for the LGBT ings public comment will be concommunity should he win the Assembly race. sistently heard, forcing the public He also detailed why it’s critically important to wait unreasonable amounts of to maintain LGBT representation in the Astime before allowed to testify. sembly.

Take Chiu’s role in appointments to the Assembly District 17 has the highest proSunshine Ordinance Task Force. Weiner sinportion of LGBT voters of any state district, gle-handedly eviscerated the Sunshine Task which is more important now than ever beForce in May 2012 by refusing to permit reapcause LGBT representation in Sacramento is pointment of Bruce Wolfe, the task force’s only threatened by term limits that may shrink the disabled member. Wiener’s meddling shut the LGBT caucus to just six members. task force down for almost six months, beCampos’s leadership will stand up for all of cause without replacement appointees, the us. Chiu only stands by us. The choice for varitask force lacked a quorum, preventing it from ous LGBT communities is crystal clear: Chiu meeting to adjudicate disputes regarding pubis running to represent the 1 percenters. Camlic meetings and public records. pos is running to represent the rest of us 99 Chiu should have stepped in and promptly percenters. resolved the matter. He didn’t lift a finger.

You won’t know which of the two David ChiCampos has had many legislative and advous will arrive in Sacramento until he gets there. cacy victories too numerous to detail here. As On June 3, mark your ballot for Campos.t chair of the Neighborhood Services and Safety Committee, Campos prevented the health department from privatizing San Francisco Patrick Monette-Shaw is a member of General Hospital’s dialysis center by moving it California’s First Amendment Coalition, a columnist for the Westside Observer to Laguna Honda Hospital’s campus. Had the newspaper, and has operated www. health department’s plan succeeded, it would stopLHHdownsize.com for a decade have placed an undue transportation burden advocating for skilled nursing care for the on critically ill dialysis patients who would elderly and disabled. He received a James have faced fragmentation of their care from a Madison Freedom of Information Award single campus to multiple locations, requiring (advocacy category) from the Society increased transportation time shuttling beof Professional Journalists-Northern tween campuses for healthcare.

California chapter for his reporting in the When Mayor Ed Lee struck a deal with Observer about Laguna Honda Hospital.

t

Letters >>

May 1-7, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Marriage movement began in 1970s

Lisa Keen’s article on Jo Becker’s book on marriage was very interesting [“Critics rip Prop 8 book,” April 24].

I have not read the book, but was fascinated by the discussion of when the same-sex marriage issue began. As I wrote in my recently published book on the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union, Jack Baker, the openly gay president of the student body of the University of Minnesota, and Mike McConnell received a marriage license and were married by a Methodist minister in Minneapolis in 1971. When the Minnesota courts overturned the marriage, the MCLU took the matter all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.

In my mind these two gentlemen, still together, were the true pioneers on the gay marriage issue. Although such historians as Jonathan Ned Katz, Dudley Clendenin, and Adam Nagourney wrote about this in their books on American gay history, the LGBT community has totally overlooked this marriage all these years.

Dick Hewetson San Francisco

Queer and aging

As a 60-year-old queer senior, the articles on aging have touched a nerve [“Trauma of AIDS epidemic impacts aging survivors,” April 3; “Isolation hampers seniors’ well-being,” April 10]. Both HIV-positive and HIV-negative people might wonder: we survived the AIDS holocaust for this – to be rejected by our own community and thrust aside by the techie generation?

When younger, I would try to be polite (or at least not willfully cruel) to being hit on by much older men. Now, I’m not going to set myself up for rejection. (“I already have a grandfather, I don’t need another one.”) It’s not worth the blow to my ego and self-esteem. How antiseptic the word “ageism” sounds. Besides, there’s porn and one-handed reading.

I can be alone without feeling lonely. I can see a movie, read a book, read the Sunday New York Times, go out for coffee, walk around the city, reminisce on my adventures in the 45 countries I’ve visited. (I worked in a jail for 17 years.) My attention is focused and I’m good with that – but not everyone else is.

Bear in mind, coming out is a lifelong process, not only to reinforce self-identity but to assert identity as it evolves. LGBTQ senior is an emerging identity for many people: come out of your rooms, come out of your depression, come out of your loneliness, tell your story and connect. Isn’t that what E.M Foster said, “just connect”?

Finally, while playing board games with fellow seniors is fine, in addition this community could learn a few things from the Gray Panthers. How about a Pink Panther march for medical and housing rights? This city is ready for it.

Stark descriptors needed

I found it ironic, sad, and a tiny bit amusing that even the article, “Black LGBT seniors struggle with bias, housing” [April 10] could not use the descriptive, stark, realistic terms “gay ageism,” “gay racism,” “gay transphobia.”

Post these words on Craigslist and your post will be removed instantly.

Oh, well. “Just a preference,” I guess.

Ken Hensley Alameda, California

Body freedom at NYC Dyke March

New York City’s Dyke March (http://www.dykemarchnyc.org) will happen June 28, the same Saturday as our San Francisco Dyke March (http://www.thedykemarch. org).

Responding to a question about top freedom and nudity, New York organizers say: “... it is legal for everyone to be topless in NYC and many of our marchers do choose to exercise that right. In terms of nudity, we do not endorse it, but if a participant wants to be nude they may do so at their own accord.”

Tortuga Bi Liberty San Francisco

SF Pride at cutting edge

In selecting Chelsea Manning as a 2014 honorary grand marshal, San Francisco Pride remains at the cutting edge of gay Pride parades in the world [“Expanding Pride board honors Manning,” February 20]. Pride parades should not be about corporate sponsorships or political showboating, but about the struggles for LGBTQ identity in our times while highlighting the many aspects of LGBTQ life and contributions to our world.

Manning, a gay member in the U.S. military, made a decision of courage and conscience to expose war crimes being committed by our government. Those who committed those war crimes remain unpunished, while the messenger exposing the war crimes is unjustly imprisoned.

Now transitioning to be a transgender woman, this courageous American shows further courage by insisting to the world media that she be recognized as Chelsea rather than Bradley in all references to her identity. To my mind, Manning’s insistence that public media name her by her identity as Chelsea has done more than any other effort to bring visibility of transgender transitioning and identity into the public consciousness.

Gary L. Cozette Chicago, Illinois

Steve Evers San Francisco

Celebrate CA Bookstore Day compiled by Cynthia Laird

L

ast year Books Inc. in the Castro had drag queen Mutha Chucka read to kids at a storytime event and this weekend Chucka is back but the theme is decidedly “for adults only.”

As the store participates in California Book Day Saturday, May 3, Chucka, whose real name is Chuck Gutro, will be reading from the best-seller Fifty Shades of Grey and other adult favorites during “Drag Queen Storytime for Grown-ups.”

The in-store event takes place at 1 p.m., 2275 Market Street. Manager Ken White said people should be on the lookout for other in-store events that afternoon.

This year marks the inaugural California Bookstore Day, which is being organized by the nearly 100 independent bookstores from Eureka to San Diego under the auspices of the Northern and Southern California Independent Booksellers Associations. Organizers have announced 13 special items created by major authors and publishers especially for the day, including a “Classic California” boxed set that includes novels by Charles Bukowski, John Fante, Armistead Maupin, and Elmore Leonard. For more information on these items, visit www.cabookstoreday.com.

LGBTQ Family Night in Berkeley

Our Family Coalition will hold its 16th annual LGBTQ Family Night

Saturday, May 3 from 5 to 8 p.m. at the downtown Berkeley YMCA, 2001 Allston Way. The evening includes lots of fun activities such as face painting, swimming, festival games, kindergym, arts and crafts, and a pizza party.

Tickets are $5 for adults; children are free. To register, visit http://tinyurl. com/ky5vwqf.

The event draws about 300 people annually, and OFC relies on volunteers to help ensure the party’s success. There may be some volunteer spots available; interested people can contact Alice Drag queen Mutha Chucka Duncan-Graves via email at alice@ourfamily. community needs assessment on org for more inforviolence prevention for LGBT permation. sons in the city. The $50,000 available for the assessment is expected Lesbian seniors to be awarded later this year, and meet in SF requests for proposals are being acOld Lesbians Orcepted through May 12. ganizing for Change The SF HRC noted that although will have a program the city is home to a vibrant and about sheroes Satdiverse LGBT community, many urday, May 3 from 2 LGBT residents continue to experito 4 p.m. at the San ence a range of inter-personal, comFrancisco Public Library, 100 Larmunity, and institutional violence. kin Street.

The purpose of the assessment is to gather information and develop Grant funds available strategies to prevent and address for LGBT needs violence against LGBTs. assessment project Interested organizations can The San Francisco Human Rights complete the RFP, which is availCommission is soliciting proposals able at http://sf-hrc.org/grantfrom nonprofit, 501(c)3 organizaopportunities.t tions to conduct a comprehensive

ebar.com

<< International News

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 1-7, 2014

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Bay Area climber claims Uganda peak for LGBT rights

by Heather Cassell

N

eal Gottlieb, the founding twin of Three Twins Ice Cream, has taken the world by surprise by raising the rainbow flag atop the tallest peak in Uganda during a six-day climb to the summit.

But his symbolic gesture did not dissuade Uganda lawmakers from introducing more anti-gay proposals.

Gottlieb, a 37-year-old straight man who lives in Sausalito, traveled to Uganda April 7-22 to climb the Rwenzori Mountains, also known as the Mountains of the Moon, which is the only equatorial peak and divides the Congo and Uganda.

What was different about this trip is that this is the first time Gottlieb, and by extension his popular organic ice cream company, has ventured into global LGBT politics.

On April 23, Gottlieb posted a photo of himself atop the Margherita Peak standing next to his rainbow flag along with an open letter to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on his Facebook page announcing what he did during his vacation.

The Petaluma-based company usually is more festive, celebrating the LGBT community during San Francisco Pride at its scoop shops

with “Going Gay as a $3 Bill,” selling $3 pints of fun gay-inspired flavors such as “Harvey Milk and Cookies,” “Dorothy’s Ruby Slipper,” “Bear Bait,” and “Two Tops Don’t Make a Bottom.”

The Bay Area Reporter spoke with Gottlieb during a phone interview from Wisconsin, where he is opening a new factory.

Originally, the trip was just an interesting challenge to climb the only equatorial peak in Africa and an excuse to return to the continent, “Which I love very dearly,” he said.

Gottlieb served in the Peace Corps in North Africa and has traveled through Kenya and Tanzania.

“I thought this climb would be great,” said Gottlieb, a part-time mountain climber who has scaled Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro and a 20,000-foot mountain in Nepal prior to his recent climb of Mount Stanley’s 16,753-foot Margherita Peak.

Gottlieb had purchased his plane tickets to Uganda several weeks before Museveni signed the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law February 24, he said.

The law broadens the criminalization of same-sex relations, and includes stiff penalties, including life imprisonment.

“It just popped into my head one afternoon and I knew I had to do it,” said Gottlieb, who was appalled and bothered by the president’s actions.

But he didn’t want to turn away from fulfilling his years-long dream to climb the peak, so Gottlieb began planning on what he would do to make an impact during his trip, he said.

“As a human I couldn’t imagine living in a country where I could be locked up for being who I am,” said Gottlieb, whose late godfather was a gay Jewish man.

He saw putting the flag up at the top of the mountain as an act of recognizing people’s fundamental human rights, to send a message to Ugandan officials and people that the issue isn’t going to disappear, and to support LGBT Ugandans.

“It seemed like a rare opportunity to not only put up such a strong symbol that would signify to people that the rest of the world does in fact care and that there are people working on fixing the atrocities that they are living under,” said Gottlieb, who didn’t meet with local LGBT activists during his trip.

During the weeks he prepared for his trip he stared at the rainbow flag he purchased to take with him knowing that he could be arrested for simply having it in his possession. He worked out multiple ways how to smuggle it into the country,

Courtesy Neal Gottlieb

Neal Gottlieb, founder of Three Twins Ice Cream, stands next to a rainbow flag he raised at Margherita Peak in the Rwenzori Mountain range in Uganda.

but in the end he hid the rainbow flag folding it inside a California Republic flag and putting it in an envelope next to his laptop in his backpack.

He figured if he was searched the customs officials might not know what the flag was, he said. Officials never searched him.

“I didn’t get searched in the end,” said Gottlieb. “So, it was a lot of consideration for nothing.”

Even the Ugandan guide with him at the peak assisted him with putting the flag up.

The photo and his letter to Museveni daring him to take the flag down went viral with mostly gay media outlets picking it up. His action has received some criticism about Westerners imposing their values upon Africans, but mostly support, he said.

His act of defiance also didn’t deter Uganda’s parliament from

proposing new anti-gay legislation.

This week cabinet members began drafting a proposal banning nongovernmental organizations from assisting LGBTs or interfering in Ugandan politics, confirmed Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda.

“It’s terrible,” said Gottlieb, concerned about the affect on HIV/ AIDS organizations. “It’s going to kill people. It’s not just going to kill gay people; it’s going to kill straight and gay Ugandans who are suffering from AIDS. It’s just absolutely awful and it’s nonsensical and inhumane.

It’s very upsetting.”t Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at 00+1-415-2213541, Skype: heather.cassell, or oitwnews@gmail.com.

weddings • headshots• portraits

415-370-7152

www.stevenunderhill.com • stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

STEVENUNDERHILLPHOTOGRAPHY

Openhouse honors Walker R

etired Chief District Judge Vaughn Walker, left, talks with Robbie Robinson at Openhouse’s annual Spring Fling luncheon that was held April 27 at the Four Seasons. The LGBT senior agency recognized Walker, who is openly gay, with its Trailblazer Award for his historic ruling in August 2010 that declared California’s same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8, unconstitutional. Walker’s ruling was later upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and last year the U.S. Supreme Court let that ruling stand, resulting in the resumption of same-sex marriage in the Golden State.

Openhouse also honored out lesbian Pam David with its Adelman-Gurevitch Founders Award. David, who is currently the executive director of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, previously worked for the city, where she identified crucial, early funding for Openhouse.

Bill Wilson

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SJ Pride

From page 1

of weak leadership. A lack of sponsor support contributed to the organization’s financial troubles, along with declining attendance at the summer festival.

Svoboda is now the president of the newly formed Project More Foundation, which is in the process of acquiring its nonprofit status.

When the Bay Area Reporter asked what the deficit was for Silicon Valley Pride, he estimated that he left it around $40,000 in debt.

“I’m not quite sure of the exact number,” said Svoboda, who wasn’t surprised when the B.A.R. mentioned that it was estimated to be more around $60,000, according to Campbell’s figures.

At the time of his departure from the board Gary Walker, the longtime festival director of San Jose Pride, “was to provide the financial information of the festival ticket sales, but I never had the opportunity to see the final report.” Svoboda said.

Walker estimated the deficit for Pride was around $52,000 as of 2013 due to rolling debt from 2012, but

his report didn’t include expenditures for fundraising events leading up to San Jose Pride, he said, when he responded to the B.A.R.’s request for comment April 22.

The South Bay’s Pride organization has functioned under a deficit for several years. In spite of gaining a surplus in 2011, the organization slipped back into debt the following years.

The board recently approved a projected budget of $75,000 to $90,000 to produce this year’s festival, Campbell said in an April 15 email.

That’s a significant difference from the organization’s total expenses in 2012, which were $210,552 and resulted in a deficit of $27,565, according to Pride’s 990 filing with the Internal Revenue Service, the most recent on file.

The board hasn’t selected a festival director yet.

Walker did not respond to requests for additional comment by press time.

Energized by Pride

The new board faces digging itself out of that roughly $60,000 debt, said Campbell, but the members are engaged as they look toward the future.

The discussion around the table at San Jose’s LGBT center at the April 3 meeting became more excited as the men discussed future fundraising events throughout Silicon Valley in an attempt to unite the South Bay. They also discussed outreach to the Asian Pacific Islander, Latino, leather, and queer women’s communities to fill the four open seats on the board.

The new spirit of Pride was evident whenever a community member poked their head into the room. The meeting stopped and they were immediately welcomed to sit at the table.

Many of the community members who stayed left the room with assignments to plan upcoming events.

“We are working more closely with the community, where the community will actually have a stronger presence in driving [Silicon Valley Pride],” said Campbell.

“What better way to do that than go out and get the community involved?”

Being in the technology hub, the Pride board is working on developing an app that will be filled with local LGBT and LGBT-friendly busiSee page 7 >>

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Politics>>

May 1-7, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Three vie for open San Francisco judge seat

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

trio of relatively unknown lawyers is vying for an open seat on the San Francisco Superior Court in the June 3 primary.

The so far low-key judicial contest is likely to be decided by a runoff in November as none of the candidates is expected to capture more than 50 percent of the vote next month to clinch the court’s Seat 20. It opened up due to Judge Charlotte Walter Woolard’s decision not to seek another six-year term.

The race marks the first time in recent years that no LGBT candidates opted to run for a judicial seat on the local bench. And as the Political Notebook previously noted, the contest has the city’s two main LGBT political groups backing different candidates.

The more progressive Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club is backing criminal defense attorney Daniel A. Flores, 37, a San Francisco native who lives in the Portola neighborhood with his wife, Priscilla, and their two children Danny, 7, and Sofia, 5. Flores also won the local Democratic Party’s endorsement, which could give him a leg up in the down-ticket race, as he will appear on the party’s mailers sent out to voters.

A 2001 graduate of the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, Flores’s legal experience has run the gamut from the criminal courts to landlord-tenant disputes and personal injury cases.

“For me the ability to serve my hometown and bring a diversity of practice to the bench is something that I feel is needed,” Flores, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, told the Bay Area Reporter during an editorial board meeting.

The more moderate Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club is backing assistant district attorney Kimberly Toney Williams, 48, for the seat. Also a San Francisco native, Williams now lives in Oakland with her adopted daughter, Jordan, 10.

The UCLA School of Law graduate joined the San Francisco District Attorney’s office in 1995. Her courtroom experience has included cases of child sexual assault, elders abuse, domestic violence, and fraud.

She also oversaw the implementation of San Francisco’s community justice courts, which offers those who commit low-level crimes a chance to avoid jail by accessing social support services for such things as drug addiction, alcoholism or mental illness.

“I am not one for just criminalize the behaviors and put them away,” Williams told the B.A.R.’s editorial board.

In 2011 Williams submitted her name to be considered for a judicial appointment by Governor Jerry

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SJ Pride

From page 6

nesses as well as events hosted by Silicon Valley Pride and other community organizations.

Silicon Valley Pride is also undergoing an attitude adjustment. In the past, South Bay LGBT business owners and Pride board members have complained about competing with San Francisco Pride, but Campbell believes that’s the wrong approach.

“I think therein lies the problem where people want to compete,” he said. “It should not be viewed as a competition it should be viewed as a complement to it or it should be

Brown. Her philosophy as a judge would center on three A’s: accessibility, assistance, and adaptability.

While her career has been spent as a prosecutor, Williams said that doesn’t mean she will be prejudiced against the defense as a judge.

“I don’t believe I have biases,” she said. “There have been cases where I told the victim I am not able to file the case because I don’t have the evidence to support.”

Whereas a judge’s residency outside of San Francisco has been an issue in at least one recent judicial contest, Williams doesn’t see her living in the East Bay as a hurdle for her campaign.

“I was born in the city. I work in the city. My kid’s school is in the city and our church is in the city,” said Williams, pointing out that state law does not require judges to live within their superior court’s jurisdiction. “The only question that matters is if I am qualified to hold this office.”

The third judicial candidate is Carol Kingsley, 62, who stepped down from the city’s police commission after filing to run. Appointed by former mayor Gavin Newsom, Kingsley had served on the oversight body since 2010 and her term was set to expire on April 1 of this year. She also served on the city’s ethics commission and advocated for public financing of political campaigns.

Born in Minneapolis, Kingsley has lived in San Francisco for 32 years and earned her law degree from the Golden Gate University School of Law. For the last decade she has worked as a mediator, working with parties to settle legal disputes outside of court.

She is also a vocal advocate against gun violence. Her husband, Jack Berman, was among those killed in the mass shooting that took place in 1993 at 101 California Street in San Francisco’s Financial District. Their son, Zack Berman, was a little over a year old at the time.

“It was a horrific, life-changing event in our lives. I have been a single mom and the sole breadwinner ever since,” Kingsley told the B.A.R. “I resolved to work passionately at reducing gun violence ever since then.”

Although she failed to secure an endorsement from either of the city’s LGBT political clubs, Kingsley does have the backing of a number of LGBT leaders, including Julius Turman, a gay man and lawyer on the police commission; gay former supervisor Bevan Dufty; and lesbian former state Senator Carole Migden.

As a judge Kingsley said she would bring three decades of legal experience to the bench.

“Twenty of those years I was an advocate representing clients and their needs,” she said. “I developed

viewed as another wonderful event that the community as a whole can take advantage of.”

Campbell believes that Silicon Valley’s LGBT community should embrace who they are and take pride.

“People should say, ‘Yes that is Silicon Valley Pride.’ If you look at Silicon Valley in and of itself, it’s a very unique place.”

Speaking with the B.A.R. following the meeting, those involved with Silicon Valley Pride said that they were excited about the new direction in which the organization is headed.

Andre Mathurin, a former San Jose Pride board member who recently returned to the board, said he See page 10 >>

Courtesy Flores for Judge campaign

Courtesy Williams for Judge campaign

Courtesy Kingsley for Judge campaign

Daniel A. Flores

Kimberly Toney Williams

Carol Kingsley

significant experience in a very wide range of civil law matters.”

She pointed to her work as a police commissioner determining police officer misconduct cases as one example of how she has the training necessary to be a judge.

“I have been using and honing the skills judges use everyday,” she said. “I can hit the ground running.”

Passage inside the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

“Access Journalism at its dangerous worst! Re-writing our movement? No thanks!” wrote Melanie Nathan on Facebook announcing the protest. “Join us to celebrate ALL the activists who contributed to the marriage equality movement in California and the U.S.A. and to denounce the book that fails to contextualize and give credit where credit is due.”

Becker will likely receive a warmer welcome Thursday, May 1 at City Hall when City Attorney Dennis Herrera, whose office was a party to the lawsuit, hosts an invite-only wine and cheese reception for the author.

Correction

Prop 8 book author visits SF

New York Times reporter Jo Becker, whose book Forcing the Spring: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality has been both panned and praised, will be in San Francisco Thursday and Friday to promote it.

Embedded for five years with the plaintiffs and the legal team behind the federal challenge to Proposition 8, California’s same-sex marriage ban, Becker provides readers with behind-the-scenes access to the case. Released last week, the book hits less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court tossed Prop 8 on a legal technicality and deprived the high-wattage, odd couple legal duo that argued the case, Ted Olson and David Boies, a sweeping decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

Excerpts of the book released prior to its publication that compared Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin, who spearheaded filing the lawsuit, to civil rights icon Rosa Parks, and made it appear that the fight for marriage equality began with the case, were met with widespread hackles and condemnation in LGBT circles.

As a front-page B.A.R. story last week noted, “Becker was not hired by the movement to write its history. If she and her book promoters had just been a little more careful to pitch the book as a behind-thescenes picture of the Proposition 8 litigation, the hue and cry might not be so harsh as it is.”

In various interviews over the last week Becker has defended her book and stood by her descriptions of Griffin, who did release a statement distancing himself from the comparison to Parks.

Local LGBT activists are planning to protest Becker’s book reading at 12:30 p.m. Friday, May 2 at Book

Last week’s column should have stated that Bill Ambrunn worked with gay state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) when he served as a San Francisco supervisor and Ambrunn was an aide to lesbian former supervisor Susan Leal. The online version has been corrected.t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion.

This week’s column reported on local LGBT political clubs’ June primary endorsements.

Surrogacy • Adoption • Prenuptial Agreements Divorce • Custody • Parentage Disputes

<< Sports

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 1-7, 2014

A not so Sterling character

by Roger Brigham

M

ove aside O.J. Simpson, Barry Bonds, LeBron James, and Tonya Harding: We have a new Most Hated Person in Sports, and the fact that he has been able to lurk in the executive offices of major pro sports for so long is a damning indictment of the industry.

For years, the incompetence of Donald Sterling has been a running joke in the NBA. Under his ownership, the Los Angeles Clippers historically have been inept beyond parallel, year in and year out.

But incompetence is not a sin.

What is a sin is that this is a man who has consistently and unapologetically exhibited racism in his dealings with his employees and his tenants, and yet his viewpoint and his continued presence have been tolerated and covered up by his fellow owners for decades.

Until now.

Until a disgruntled ex-girlfriend reportedly sold a surreptitious recording for a half-million dollars that has the Clippers owner berating her for having pictures of herself with Magic Johnson and Matt Kemp posted online, and for walking into his team games with them

and other people of color.

Oh, Sterling has been successfully sued (spectacularly so) for his racist practices in the past, but he was allowed to continue to troll the NBA until TMZ, that bastion of modern journalism excellence, aired his dirty linen for the world during the midst of the playoff series between the Clippers and our own Golden State Warriors.

On Tuesday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling for life and fined him $2.5 million.

How appropriate it was for the Clippers players to show up at their game Sunday, just hours after TMZ’s report, with their warm-up jerseys worn inside out. Hearing or reading Sterling’s pathetic, racist rants is enough to turn the entire league inside out as well as the emotions of anyone with a smidgeon of compassion.

In the immediate aftermath, individuals and institutions are scrambling to respond to the scandal. Everyone from Johnson and Charles Barkley to Barack Obama and Sterling’s estranged wife have condemned

True Light

The Most Holy Redeemer Choir Spring Concert Bryce Robinson, Director

Featuring songs of light, love and welcoming by Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Duruflé, Fauré, John Williams, Stephen Schwartz and more...

Sunday, May 4, 2014 l 1:00 P.M. Donation: $15.00

Tickets available at the door or email secretary@mhr.org Reception following

God’s inclusive love proclaimed here!

Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church

100 Diamond Street @ 18th, San Francisco, CA 94114 (415) 863-6259 mhr.org

Carey W. Craig On March 27, 2014 we lost our dear friend, Carey W. Craig.

Carey spent most of his adult life living and working in the Bay Area. In the early days of the AIDS crisis, Carey served as a board member for the Academy of Friends (known in those days as Friends of Oscar). Carey, along with his fellow members of the board carefully guarded and nurtured the legacy of the Academy of Friends Gala , a signature of HIV/ AIDS fundraising in the Bay Area. The renowned gala was a social highlight of the year, where old friends would gather and be guarenteed a glass of bubbly at the door, a warm welcome from the Board and an evening of delights - much of if orchestrated under Carey’s watchful eye. The gala continues today and the Academy of Friends has raised millions of dollars for various Bay area AIDS organizations, thanks in part to Carey and his service and leadership with the organization.

In 1989 Carey left the board to assume his role as Co-Executive Director of the organization, a position he held for well over a decade, providing his signature flare and style to the Gala. In addition, Carey was a founding partner of the David-Carey Group, focusing on HIV related fund raising nation wide. One of the pinnacle events under his tenure at the David-Carey Group was 7th On Sale. The 7th On Sale weekend drew thousands of people from all walks of life and raised record millions for HIV research and care in the Bay Area.

Through 25 years of fundraising in the Bay area, Carey became a respected, admired and dedicated individual in the HIV non-profit community. He mentored many young professionals just starting out in the non-profit fundraising world and his presence in this arena will be greatly missed.

Carey went on to form his own event company, the CW Production Company that expanded beyond the Bay Area and produced memorable civic, corporate and social events worldwide. He was very passionate about his work and a true professional. His profession allowed him to indulge one of his greatest passions- travel. Carey loved being on a plane, going somewhere new to explore or somewhere where he was welcomed by one of his many friends around the world.

Carey was an amazingly talented, handsome and generous man. He had an infectious smile and never shied away from a challenge or a wonderful bottle of champagne. He carved out a wonderful sanctuary in his Sausalito home and it was the setting for many gatherings of friends and family over the years. He was demanding of others at times when he saw the potential that they could attain if they just pushed a bit harder, as he always did himself. He was an achiever, a mentor and a friend to many.

We invite you to honor and remember Carey at a memorial to be held at one of his favorite organizations and favorite places in San Francisco, the National AIDS Memorial Grove, on Saturday, May 3, 2014 from 2 until 5 pm.

the owner’s comments. Billionaires across the country phoned in offers to buy the team, which will certainly be pried from Sterling’s boney grasp.

The NAACP, which had been set to honor Sterling later this month with an award, swiftly rescinded it but said it sure could have a bundle of forgiveness if Sterling would cough up a major wad of payola – I mean, make a community donation.

But is any of this enough or even really on point?

In short, no.

Across the board, the major pro sports leagues in this country have made tremendous strides in the past year in cutting down on racism and other hateful actions and words by their coaches, athletes, and fans. They’ve held awareness workshops, passed non-discrimination policies, and made public service announcements. Baseball retired Jackie Robinson’s number.

But policies are only as good as the intentions of the people who enforce them, and you really have to wonder how dedicated the leagues are to policing team owners.

People remember when the late Marge Schott was suspended from ownership of the Cincinnati Reds in 1993 for allegations made by one of her employees of racist comments, actions and attitudes toward Jews, blacks, gays, and Asians.

But what people forget is what the Oakland Tribune reported at the same time: that Major League Baseball did not investigate or respond to the allegation of Oakland A’s executive Sharon Jones that Schott had made racist remarks during a conference call with other team front offices and not a single executive protested or acted as though the comments were anything out of the ordinary. Among the comments Jones reported Schott as saying was, “I would never hire another nigger.

I’d rather have a trained monkey working for me than a nigger.”

In other words, racist comments in executive discussions were as commonplace as the racist language

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responded to the Sterling incident by saying, “We at PCA deplore the comments. Yet we encourage coaches and parents to discuss the controversy with youth athletes.

This is a remarkable opportunity for dialogue around race and sports in our country. From such hurtful language can come a great deal of healing.”

Dancing at the Gay Games

Clippers owner Donald Sterling

Dolphins player Ritchie Incognito texted and bellowed at teammate Jonathan Martin every day at practice.

You don’t have to go back to the “gentlemen’s agreement” that kept African American players out of MLB play to know that, as Sterling indicated in his bumbling and befuddled way, many pro team owners continue to exist and operate in a racist “culture.” You don’t have to wonder why for years NFL owners would not draft black quarterbacks (of if they did, moved them to a different position) or hire black head coaches.

So pardon me if the NBA’s expressed outrage at learning of Sterling’s comments strikes me as being rather like Captain Renault telling us that he is “shocked, shocked to learn that there is gambling in this establishment.”

There is racism and it is allowed to fester because no one is ferreting it out. Pro sports are based on institutionalized power differentials between athletes and ownership in which the rights of the athletes to control where they work and for how much are severely restricted until they have accumulated enough debilitating injuries to be washed up. Greed provides plenty of motivation to live in denial of concussions and other brain damage because, really, they’re just jocks.

The Positive Coaching Alliance

About two-dozen dancers gathered at Just Dance Ballroom in Oakland last weekend for a workshop on the upcoming Gay Games in Cleveland. The workshop, held in conjunction with the popular April Follies same-sex dance competition, was presented by Barbara Zoloth, a board member of the North American Same-Sex Dance Association; and Rob Smitherman, director of sports and events for Gay Games 9.

Registration is reportedly (and not unexpectedly) sluggish in some sports. My gut feeling is that this is because of the degrees to which barriers to sports have been falling in the decades since the Gay Games were founded in 1982, and that by and large people have less disposable income now to spend on a weeklong sports festival than they did decades earlier. And many do not consider Cleveland and Akron a vacation destination. But as Zoloth and Smitherman detailed to the gathered dancers, dance sport at this Gay Games is expected to be both spectacular and historic.

Spectacular because the venue is the elegant Renaissance Hotel Ballroom, a vintage room with sweeping staircases that will have a topquality floor laid down just for the competition. Historic because for the first time, Argentine tango will be offered in the Gay Games.

Participants were informed about available airline discounts, early registration rates, and registration discount codes. Organizers promised to provide updated information on the 2014 Gay Games’ Dancesport Facebook page, as well as providing help for dancers seeking trainers or dance partners. Information about NASSDA is available at www. nasspda.org.t

Film publicist Lewis Tice dies

by David-Elijah Nahmod

L

GBT filmmakers are mourning the April 1 death of Lewis Tice, a gay longtime film publicist who worked for gay-owned TLA Video.

He was 44.

The exact cause of Mr. Tice’s death has not yet been released.

As a publicist, Mr. Tice helped scores of independently produced LGBT films find their audience, including acclaimed titles such as Latter Days, Another Gay Movie, and Mysterious Skin. His love for LGBT independent cinema was legendary, and won him the respect and affection of many.

Mr. Tice worked closely with the promoters of many film festivals, including Frameline, San Francisco’s annual LGBT film fest.

“Lewis Tice was loved by all who crossed his path, and Frameline was honored to work in collaboration with him as a trusted colleague over many years,” said Frances Wallace, Frameline’s acting executive director. “Lewis’s contribution to queer cinema in the USA and worldwide cannot be matched, as he always spoke with incredible knowledge and acted from his heart.”

Mr. Tice also did publicity for his own private clients, who included San Francisco resident Joshua Grannell. Grannell, known by many as his drag persona Peaches Christ, was

Film publicist Lewis Tice

in shock at the loss of Mr. Tice, who he considered a personal friend.

“He was such an integral part of so many filmmakers’ and artists’ lives and his support for artists knew no bounds,” Grannell said in a statement to the Bay Area Reporter. “He was deeply loved and respected by the people he worked closely with, which included the entire Peaches Christ Productions family.

“Lewis and I would often travel together to film festivals and had been to Cannes, Sundance, horror conventions and more with one another,” Grannell added. “It seemed like literally everyone knew him, and people would light up when they saw him, greeting him with huge smiles.”

Mr. Tice’s work in the horror genre was not well known within LGBT cinema circles, but he in fact produced the chillers Blood for Irina (2012) and the upcoming Queen of Blood (2014), both of which were directed by Chris Alexander, editorin-chief of Fangoria magazine.

“Lewis was kind, creative, and positive,” Alexander told the B.A.R. “He made the process of making and exhibiting movies a joy and was someone whose energy and spirit will always be missed by those who had the honor and pleasure of working with him.”

Within the LGBT sphere, Mr. Tice’s producing credits included Bear City (2010), and Longhorns (2011).

A memorial service for Tice took place in Los Angeles April 27. A San Francisco celebration of Mr. Tice’s life is now in the planning stages.

For details, check Facebook at Lewis Tice - A Celebration Of Life; San Francisco.t

On the web Online content this week includes the Bay Area Reporter’s online column Political Notes and the Transmissions column. www.ebar.com.

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LGBT Aging>>

May 1-7, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Seniors demand response from Realtors

by David-Elijah Nahmod

H

ousing activists, led by members of Senior and Disability Action and the Housing Rights Committee, converged upon the San Francisco Association of Realtors to demand an end to the escalating number of Ellis Act evictions.

It was noted throughout the protest that seniors, the disabled, people with HIV/AIDS, and people of color were among the hardest hit by the evictions. Some protesters were on crutches or in wheelchairs, while others were in their 70s or 80s. All were either facing eviction or had already lost their homes.

Passed in 1985, the Ellis Act allows landlords who want to get out of the rental business to evict tenants without reason. The current tech boom, like the dot-com boom of the 1990s, has seen a rash of evictions from real estate speculators who purchase multiple properties, evict all residents, then sell the units as condos or tenancies in common for huge profits. Activists have argued that these developers, some from out of town, were never in the rental business at all, and should not be allowed to invoke the Ellis Act. Gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos, whose Mission district has

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Tax measure

From page 1

The April 26 rally was a follow-up to the citywide tenants’ convention that was held earlier this year.

“We are updating the community on the legislative priorities that they chose from the convention.

There will be teach-ins on how to get these laws passed,” said AIDS Housing Alliance/San Francisco

been called “eviction quisition of a property. central” by some, reAmmiano (Dcently passed legislaSan Francisco) has tion that greatly inauthored AB 2405, creases the payments which would allow to tenants from landlocal jurisdictions lords who use the El– by a means of a lis Act. Seniors and vote by a Board of the disabled were foSupervisors or pubcusing on the physilic vote – to enact a cal and emotional moratorium on Ellis hardships they face Act evictions when when evicted, which the local housing eleno amount of money ment is not met.

Jane Philomen Cleland could compensate Chang accepted the Ethel Silverstein, seated on walker, waits to address a rally them for, they said. letter, which he promoutside the San Francisco Association of Realtors, where her “These are seniors ised to deliver to Baclist of the 30 dirtiest eviction landlords was read. who are facing the aszkowski. He declined sault of eviction,” to address the crowd Robles to Walter T. Baczkowski, the said Tony Robles, or to offer a comment association’s chief executive officer. housing organizing directo the Bay Area Reporter.

“I know that you, as an Asian tor for Senior and Disabil“This is elder abuse, not a PR moAmerican man, know about elderity Action, as he addressed ment,” shouted protester Lisa Garship,” Robles said to Chang as he the crowd of about 50 during cia, pointing at Chang. “We don’t handed him the letter. “You are a the April 22 action at 301 hear a response.” future senior. There is pending Ellis Grove Street, the Realtors’ Tommi Avicolli Mecca, direcAct legislation from Assemblyman headquarters. “Eviction of tor of counseling programs at the Tom Ammiano and Senator Mark seniors from their homes Housing Rights Committee of San Leno. Don’t oppose them.” is nothing less than an asFrancisco, told the crowd that since Robles was referring to Ellis Act sault on their well being: their health, 1997, 2,000 units have been lost to reform legislation that the gay lawtheir finances, their lives.”

Ellis Act evictions. makers introduced earlier this year Robles pointed out that many “Most of those with AIDS become in Sacramento. seniors have told him of the health homeless as a result of eviction,” he Leno (D-San Francisco) has auproblems they now face due to the said. “One of the results of homelessthored Senate Bill 1439, which authostress of impending evictions. ness is death. When you are homeless rizes the city to prohibit new property Jay Chang from the Realtors’ asyou cannot maintain your drug regiowners from invoking the Ellis Act to sociation came out of the group’s ofmen. It leads to death.” evict tenants for five years after the acfice to accept and deliver a letter from Avicolli Mecca said that the aver-

age lifespan of a homeless person with AIDS was 52 years, around 28 years less than people who have stable housing and medical care.

Mary Spoerer, 75, held up a sign that said “Stop Hellish Act Evictions.”

“I’m a senior, evicted from my home of 36 years,” she told the B.A.R. “It still hurts.”

Spoerer is currently in a roommate situation with a disabled man.

“If he’s evicted, I’m on the street,” she said.

Ethel Silverstein, a woman in her 80s who’s being threatened with eviction, brought a sign that listed the “Dirty 30,” the worst Ellis Act evictors. All, she alleged, were real estate developers or speculators.

“I’ve been in my place for 30 years,” Silverstein said. “I’m disabled.

I’m not well. This is outrageous. The developers have to get off their duffs and say we have parents, we have children, we can’t do this.”

Bonnie Spindler of Zephyr Real Estate was on “Ethel’s list,” as it’s called. The B.A.R. attempted to reach Spindler at her office. Spindler’s receptionist, who declined to give her name, refused to put the call through to Spindler and called the claims by the protesters a “gross exaggeration.”

“In a lot of cultures, people respect their elders,” said Erin McElroy of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project. “What does this say about our culture?”t

director Brian Basinger.

Speakers included Norman Fong of the Chinatown Community Development Center.

“You are the heart and soul of San Francisco,” he said. “We are here to save people’s lives.”

One group of tenants talked about how they are fighting back against their eviction.

“We’re still living in our homes five months after eviction because

Organizations represented at the rally included San Francisco Tenant’s Union, Causa Justas, and Eviction Free San Francisco.t

tenants fought back,” Chandra Redack told the crowd. “Spread the word and get the tax on the ballot.

Let’s occupy our homes and beat them at their own game.”

Speakers alternated between addressing the crowd in English, Spanish, and Chinese.

Alison Wright, a 53-year-old lesbian, attended the rally using a cane. Wright and her partner, Leisa Thornton, are facing eviction.

Wright, who declined to name her landlord due to ongoing court proceedings, told the Bay Area Reporter that the couple has been served with three-day eviction notices when they were short on the rent by $12 or less. Wright said that their landlord has flipped many buildings and often refused to make needed repairs.

“They created a law knowing it would be used as a business model,” said Wright. “Now how do we stop it?”

Those who want to get involved in the campaign can visit the website of the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition at http://sfadc.wordpress.com/. The coalition can also be found on Facebook.

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10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 1-7, 2014

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Sober space

From page 2

cause the house was listed for $1.7 million. However, help came in the form of a George “Jorge” Maumer, who bought the house for $1 million and negotiated a 10-year lease with the country club.

It took three months to renovate the house. Space was made because the house wasn’t originally built to be a community center. Beswick said that the changes were done “... to better suit the community’s needs.”

“We spent about $140,000 on the remodel,” Beswick said. “The landlord paid for the retrofit of the building, and our new back deck.

We had tens of thousands of dollars of donated materials and labor for the new floors, paint, and fixtures.

We raised the money in small individual donations, small and large events, drag shows, garage sales, you name it.”

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SJ Pride

From page 7

came back because of the internal changes he saw happening and the excitement being generated.

Ray Mueller is a former Pride board member who recently returned to the organization as a contractor working on marketing and sponsorship, Campbell said.

“I’m pleased and proud to be able to do something that I love for

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Lesbian teacher

From page 1

She claims in her lawsuit that her performance as an English teacher at Sultana was deemed “exemplary.”

An April 2012 evaluation concluded that her first year on the job had been “great” and her administrators “appreciate her hard work,” according to court papers.

Nonetheless, Frost alleges in her lawsuit that the school district chose not to renew her teaching contract “because she is a lesbian who is open about her sexual orientation, who complained about and attempted to challenge discrimination, retaliation and harassment directed against her and others, and who supported the legal rights and the health and safety of Sultana students” who are LGBT, gender non-conforming, and their straight friends.

The school district’s decision, claims Frost, “deprived her of her livelihood and endangered her career as a teacher, as a non-reelect sends a very negative signal to other potential school employers.”

Asked to comment about the lawsuit by the B.A.R., the office of Hesperia Superintendent David McLaughlin referred to a statement he issued back in November dismissing Frost’s claims.

“While the district may not discuss personnel matters, Ms. Frost’s

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Lexus

From page 3

degrading behavior.”

A woman who answered the phone at the dealership Tuesday referred questions to the law firm Berliner-Cohen.

Christine Long, a partner at the firm, said in an emailed statement that the dealership “learned of the lawsuit” Friday, April 25. Before that, said Long, neither Brock nor his attorney “had notified the owner or key personnel of his or others’ claims regarding working conditions.”

It appears from the lawsuit that Brock “first voiced certain complaints just days ago in early April” to James, who was addressing his concerns when Brock “chose to file this lawsuit alleging new and different claims and seek media attention,” she said.

The club still has financial challenges. However, Beswick said that the club will do what it can to keep the place running.

“The operating budget is about $235,000 in the current fiscal year,” Beswick said. “Prior to closing, we were operating at a deficit of about $4,000 per month, which was draining our reserves. We are expecting that with the remodel and an expanded menu, and growing community support, we will close that gap. The cafe is a central part of the CCC’s operations, and I think it is now a beautiful place.”

Members of the club’s advisory board encouraged people to patronize the cafe.

“Our goal is to have the CCC be fully self-sustaining, but in order for that to become a reality, we need the cafe to be a successful enterprise,” advisory board Chair Keith Folger said in a news release. “And for that to happen, we need [the] commu-

nity to patronize the CCC.” David Diaz and Brandon Stanton said that they are thankful for the steps that they took to get sober. “[Sobriety] gave me my life back,” said Diaz.

“For me it was a matter of life or death. Getting clean has given me my life back,” said Stanton.

With proclamations from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (DSan Francisco), gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), as well as the community to back up the country club, Beswick said that he has high hopes for the future.

“We are survivors,” he said. “[W] e’ve survived AIDS and hepatitis and alcoholism and addiction.

We’re not too big to fail, but we are too important to fail. The CCC has helped countless people and even if we [lose] the physical space, I have faith that the recovery community is strong and resilient and will continue the work as they do today.”t

an organization that I truly believe in,” said Mueller, a gay man in his late 40s who has lived in the South Bay with his partner of 20 years for nearly five years.

Mueller said that he is being compensated on a percentage scale for the sponsorships he brings in starting at 10 percent. Campbell confirmed that Mueller’s compensation was “based on a complex formula.”

“It’s a positive change,” said Mueller, who sees the organization’s

name change as “extremely exciting.” He added that he’s even more confident that the board’s professional business approach will help the organization “be able to flourish and move forward.”t

allegations that the district dismissed her because she ‘blew the whistle’ with the ACLU about students’ equal rights, specifically the rights of our LGBT students, is absolutely false,” stated McLaughlin.

“The simple matter of fact is that a probationary teacher was legitimately and appropriately dismissed, a fact that will become evident as this matter is litigated, and she is now trying to cloud the matter, and turn it into legal action for personal gain.”

McLaughlin added that, “Regardless, we will not be deterred in our commitment to make sure that our teachers are held to high standards.

Sadly, her efforts serve only to fuel the argument that public education cannot dismiss teachers who do not meet district expectations without controversy and, potentially costly, legal battles.”

Jennifer Pizer, Lambda Legal’s senior counsel and director of its Law and Policy Project, told the B.A.R. that mediation efforts this winter to resolve the lawsuit outside of court failed and she expects the case to go to trial. After Hesperia’s attorneys challenged Judge Bryan Foster being assigned the case, it is now before Judge Brian McCarville, who has yet to hold a hearing on the matter.

Confident that Frost will prevail, Pizer predicted that the cost to the school district “will be enormous”

if damages are awarded. The goal of the lawsuit, however, is to see Frost be rehired as a teacher.

“Part of our goal is to have the district understand the laws are clear on this and ban against LGBT discrimination,” said Pizer. “Julia’s professional goals are focused on the needs of LGBT students. She is a teacher who stood up for them and is now the slain messenger.”

Frost said the legal conflict has taken a toll on her and her partner of nearly six years, who prefers to remain anonymous. The couple’s cars and home were vandalized with anti-gay slurs during the Christmas holiday, and they can’t afford to attend a nephew’s college graduation celebration in Hawaii due to her being out of a job.

While she would like to go back to work for the Hesperia school district, Frost does not want to return to Sultana High School.

“There are lots of options. They have several other high schools I could work at,” she said, later adding, “If Hesperia prevails in destroying my teaching career, I have no idea what I want to do.”

Should she return to the classroom, Frost is adamant about remaining an out teacher.

“I’ve always ever wanted to be a teacher. I am really good at it,” said Frost. “It is really difficult to teach from the closet.”t

As far as Miliano and the alleged fraud, “Lexus of Concord immediately began investigating the complaints when they were reported and had put in place a mechanism to audit the records to determine whether or not such scheme impacted any employee,” said Long.

The dealership is “investigating all of the claims made in the complaint and will appropriately handle the matter within the dealership and the courts rather than the courthouse steps,” she said. “Due to employee privacy concerns, Lexus of Concord is precluded from commenting on any other personnel action.”

In a brief phone call, Long, who said James is still general manager but Miliano’s left the dealership, said James and Torian had no comment “at this time.” Defendants had 30 days to file their response to the lawsuit, she said.

Brock didn’t immediately re-

The Silicon Valley Pride board meets every Thursday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Billy De Frank LGBT Community Center, 938 The Alameda. For more information, visit www.svpride.com.

spond to an email requesting comment on Long’s remarks Tuesday.

Lao, the other plaintiff who remains at the shop, said he couldn’t comment when reached by phone Tuesday because he was with a customer.

In an email, Toyota spokeswoman Carly Schaffner said, in part, “Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. does not own, operate, or manage Lexus of Concord” and has “no knowledge of the facts surrounding the allegations” included in the complaint.

A news release from attorneys for the plaintiffs said they “seek repayment of wages taken in taxes, assurance that the hostile work environment will be abated, and reinstatement of jobs, and $3 million for each plaintiff for the mental and emotional fear, humiliation and abuse they have been and are experiencing.”

If there’s a jury trial, the plaintiffs will seek millions more.t

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Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550227

In the matter of the application of: SIOBHAN KATHERINE DUNY, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SIOBHAN KATHERINE DUNY, is requesting that the name SIOBHAN KATHERINE DUNY, be changed to SIOBHAN KATHERINE BAMFORD. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Rm. 514 on the 5th of June 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

APR 10, 17, 24, MAY 01, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035721900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FLAWLESS TAN, 5462 NEWPARK PLAZA, NEWARK, CA 94560. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZILIKA OMAR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/18/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/18/14.

APR 10, 17, 24, MAY 01, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035762200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GAME PLAN STRATEGIC, 222 COLUMBUS AVE #203, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed STEFANIE P. KELLY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/04/14.

APR 10, 17, 24, MAY 01, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035748500

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APR 10, 17, 24, MAY 01, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035746500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHANG’S KITCHEN, 1030 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CHANG SHENG INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/27/14.

APR 10, 17, 24, MAY 01, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035756900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 21TECH, 1390 MARKET ST #1202, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 21TECH, LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/96. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/02/14.

APR 10, 17, 24, MAY 01, 2014 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035185600 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: KEVIN’S KIMCHI HOME COOKING, 510 26TH AVE #508, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by KEVIN CHRISTOPHER ROBERTSON. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/17/13.

APR 10, 17, 24, MAY 01, 2014 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-032992400

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SEVERE MUSICK, 3467 MISSION ST, SF, CA 94110. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by ANTHONY SEVERO. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/26/10.

APR 10, 17, 24, MAY 01, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550248

In the matter of the application of: MARCELA TERESA BUSTOS, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MARCELA TERESA BUSTOS, is requesting that the name MARCELA TERESA BUSTOS, be changed to MARCELA TERESA MARENCO ROSE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Rm. 514 on the 12th of June 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

APR 17, 24, MAY 01, 08, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035764300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COMMERCEX, 333 HARRISON ST #423, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JEFF KWIAT. 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 04/04/14.

APR 17, 24, MAY 01, 08, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035773600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FORTHRIGHT STRATEGIC DESIGN, 4301 23RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHRISTOPHER W. HAYES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/09/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/09/14.

APR 17, 24, MAY 01, 08, 2014

SUMMONS SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF CONTRA COSTA NOTICE TO RESPONDENT: SHAW SECURITY MANAGEMENT, YOU ARE BEING SUED. PETITIONER’S NAME IS PETER A. DAVIDSON, LIMITED RECEIVER FOR COMMERCIAL ESCROW SERVICES, INC. CASE NO. C13 02425

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, 725 COURT ST., MARTINEZ, CA 94553. The name, address, and telephone number of petitioner’s attorney, or the petitioner without an attorney, is: KIMBERLEY D. LEWIS (SBN 137637), KLEWIS@ECJLAW.COM ERVIN COHEN & JESSUP LLP, 9401 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD, NINTH FLOOR, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA 90212-2974 TELEPHONE (310) 273-6333 FACSIMILE (310) 859-2325 Date: APRIL 9, 2014 Clerk of the Superior Court, by STEPHEN K. AUSTIN, Deputy.

MAY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035749700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUPER DOGE STUDIO, 71 BRIGHTON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JIAWEN LIANG. 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 03/28/14.

APR 17, 24, MAY 01, 08, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035749800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HSING HSING STUDIO, 111 MONTEBELLO AVE #B212, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94043. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HSING CHIEH WANG. 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 03/28/14.

APR 17, 24, MAY 01, 08, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035766300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FLUFF N FOLD, 3451 22ND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RICHARD K. LEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/07/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/07/14.

APR 17, 24, MAY 01, 08, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035771000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SF ELECTROLYSIS, 500 SUTTER ST #703, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LILY GUZMAN L. E. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/08/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/08/14.

APR 17, 24, MAY 01, 08, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035783700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HERMANN HANS, 3150 18TH ST #537, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HERMANN JAMES SEEMANN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/15/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/15/14.

APR 17, 24, MAY 01, 08, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035722000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DOCTOR CLEANING, 5314 BAYVIEW AVE #E, RICHMOND, CA 94804. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed NATHALI G. PALMA CADENAS & JOHN PAUL LOPEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/18/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/18/14.

APR 17, 24, MAY 01, 08, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035779300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: A + D / PLA A JOINT VENTURE, 98 JACK LONDON ALLEY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed PFAU LONG ARCHITECTURE, LTD., A CA CORP & A + D ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN, A CA CORP. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/11/14.

APR 17, 24, MAY 01, 08, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035785000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GIRAFFE MARKETING, 660 4TH ST, #497, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed XENTER INC. (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/13/2002. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/15/14.

APR 17, 24, MAY 01, 08, 2014

▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035732700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DRAKE, 508 4TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KINGSTON VENTURES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/21/14.

APR 17, 24, MAY 01, 08, 2014 NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE OF PROPERTY Personal property described as: Miscellaneous furniture, chairs, wardrobe, desks, tool box, power tools, dishes, pots, pans and other miscellaneous household items left at 2563 16th Avenue, San Francisco, CA. Public Auction will be held on site at 1pm on May 20, 2014.

MAY 01, 08, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035778500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VLOVEPLASTIC, 2639 BALBOA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA. 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JITRUTHAI RATTANASONGCHAI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/10/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/10/14.

APR 24, MAY 01, 08, 15, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035741700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SENSEOFPLACE LAB & SF E/P, 1546 PERSHING DRIVE, #C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA. 94129. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LAURA BROWN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/24/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/25/14.

APR 24, MAY 01, 08, 15, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035796700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BODY TRUST, 104 HANCOCK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114 This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed AMY BUTCHER & KATHERINE ALEXANDER JACKS & ZAEDRYN ENSOR ESTES & ELIZABETH L. RANDALL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/21/14.

APR 24, MAY 01, 08, 15, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035778300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLDEN GATE PROPERTIES, 1199 DEHARO ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA. 94107 this business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed G2PROPERTIES (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 04/10/14.

APR 24, MAY 01, 08, 15, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035795500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 338 IL CAFÉ, 338 SPEAR ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105.

This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed ANDREW POULOS & DIVA ANNE POULOS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/20/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/21/14.

APR 24, MAY 01, 08, 15, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035795801

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WORLD GATE JEWEL; WHITE WALL BARBERS BLACK WALL CAFÉ, 338 SPEAR ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed DIVA POULOS & ANDREW POULOS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/21/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/21/14.

APR 24, MAY 01, 08, 15, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035793200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE TRADESMAN, 753 ALABAMA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TRADESMAN VENTURES, 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 04/18/14.

APR 24, MAY 01, 08, 15, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550292

In the matter of the application of: LINDA GAYLE MARKS BARNETCHE for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner LINDA GAYLE MARKS BARNETCHE, is requesting that the name LINDA GAYLE MARKS BARNETCHE, be changed to LYNDA MARKS BARNETCHE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 11th of SEPTEMBER, 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE OF PROPERTY Personal property described as: Miscellaneous furniture, chairs, wardrobe, desks, tool box, power tools, dishes, pots, pans and other miscellaneous household items left at 2563 16th Avenue, San Francisco, CA. Public Auction will be held on site at 1pm on May 20, 2014.

MAY 01, 08, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035808200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Q DESIGN, 1 DANIEL BURNHAM CT, #701, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANGELA QUAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/28/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/28/14.

MAY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035801900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE STONE FLOWER, PIER 39, #H-14, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94119. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHOLADA THINPRAPAARAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/24/14.

May 1-7, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

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MAY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035772600

Pet Services>>

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KARI ORVIK PHOTOGRAPHY; KARI ORVIK TINTYPE STUDIO, 5153 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KARI ORVIK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/09/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/09/14.

SHEAR PETS MOBILE GROOMING –

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MAY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035805300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SMALL WORLD CHILD CARE, 2223 39TH AVE., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EILEEN J. QIU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/25/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/25/14.

MAY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035790700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ALFARO’S JANITORIAL SERVICES, 2707 OHIO AVE, RICHMOND, CA 94804. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JORGE ALFARO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/17/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/17/14.

MAY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035805200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: STORER-SAN FRANCISCO, 300 TOLAND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed STORER TRANSPORTATION SERVICE, (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/25/14.

MAY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035801100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AIDA; INTERAMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE (CA); ASOCIACION INTERAMERICANA PARA LA DEFENSA DEL AMBIENTE C/O EARTHJUSTICE, 50 CALIFORNIA ST, #500, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed INTERAMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/24/14.

MAY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0358094-00

MAY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2014

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLD DUST TOURS; TOMORROW TOURS; TASTY TOURS; JOE TOURS, 501 CESAR CHAVEZ #108B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CONSOLIDATED LIMO INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/29/14.

MAY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035790700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ALFARO’S JANITORIAL SERVICES, 2707 OHIO AVE, RICHMOND, CA 94804. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JORGE ALFARO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/17/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/17/14.

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MAY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035808700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MONKEY WRENCH, 29 TOLEDO WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RUSSELL H. LONG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/29/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/29/14.

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21

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Out &About

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15

O&A

15

The

Vol. 44 • No. 18 • May 1-7, 2014

www.ebar.com/arts

Escaping into world cinema

by David Lamble

T

he 57th San Francisco International Film Festival concludes with a final week of treasures, climaxing in actor Chris Messina’s Closing Night chamber piece, Alex of Venice. Here are nine suggestions on how to enjoy your film week at the Sundance Kabuki, New People Cinema or Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA). More info can be found at www.sffs.org.

See page 23 >>

A scene from Abdellah Taia’s Salvation Army, playing the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival.

Courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society

Jeremy Jordan shoots to stardom

by Adam Sandel

T

here are big breaks, and there are overnight sensations. And then there’s Jeremy Jordan. In the last five years, he’s appeared in four Broadway shows, earned a Tony nomination, starred in a major motion picture, and appeared on a hot TV series. For good measure, his upcoming film is coincidentally titled The Last Five Years.

See page 22 >>

{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS } SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDEN SOCIETY 47th ANNUAL

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<< Out There

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 1-7, 2014

Stylish thriller opens film festival

by Roberto Friedman

O

pening night of the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival was a special thrill for Out There, a big Patricia Highsmith fan. The featured attraction at the Castro Theatre was first-time director Hossein Amini’s film based on the lesbian crime novelist’s The Two Faces of January.

Highsmith’s thrillers have been the source material of some very successful film adaptations, notably Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, and René Clément’s Plein Soleil. But apart from the Ripley novels and a few select others, her pulp fiction is not especially clever, wellwritten or well-plotted. It’s certainly not literary. As a friend remarked af-

Steven Underhill

The Two Faces of January director Hossein Amini at the opening night of the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival, at the Castro Theatre.

ter he read one of her books, “Did she get paid by the yard?” She was known for getting into the psychology of her psychopathic murderers (Ripley is the best example), not for the nimbleness of her plots or prose. Take it from us, we’ve read practically her whole oeuvre and both major biographies of her – and apparently she was rather a sociopath herself.

January seems an odd choice for the Hollywood-star film treatment, though its sordid tale of three American grifters abroad does feature scenic locales in Greece and further afield. Its first murder occurs rather off-handedly in an Athens hotel room, but its second, more spectacular murder is a horrific deed that transpires at the Palace of Knossos in Crete. There is one bit of interesting psychodrama in the book, in that expat gigolo Rydal finds himself becoming an accomplice to murder seemingly because he has unresolved daddy issues. “Rydal realized that Chester’s resemblance to his father was the main reason why he had so suddenly and spontaneously helped Chester with the corpse in the corridor.”

So the book is a rancid little potboiler. And the film’s three main characters are hardly sympathetic.

But the setting and cinematography are glamorous, and the camera just loves the movie-star faces of Chester (Viggo Mortensen), Collette (Kirsten Dunst) and Rydal (Oscar Isaac). Fortunately, there are lots of close-ups.

None of the stars attended opening night, but director Amini was there at the step-and-shoot, which transpired upstairs in the Castro’s

t

Courtesy of Andrew Linnett and San Francisco Film Society

Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst star in Hossein Amini’s thriller The Two Faces of January, openingnight film of the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival.

mezzanine rather than on a red carpet outside, as Castro Street is being torn up for some cosmetic surgery.

New SF Film Society Executive Director Noah Cowan mingled with the hoi polloi during the afterparty at Public Works, and OT got a chance to congratulate Director of Programming Rachel Rosen. Festival season is off and running.

Modern times

It was a busy week for Out There, but really, what week isn’t? We were in the house for a pre-opening preview of Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism at the Contemporary Jewish Museum/ SF, where CJM Executive Director Lori Starr and guest curator Donald Albrecht made remarks about

the exhibition before the galleries were opened to excited partygoers.

The work of Jewish émigré artists, architects and designers played a big part in bringing the aesthetics of modernism to the American mainstream – even with such quotidian objects as the princess phone and the Honeywell thermostat.

One of the highlights of Designing Home is a slide-show presentation of the title sequences created for midcentury films such as Hitchcock’s Psycho and Vertigo, devised by the artist Saul Bass. Bass created a look and vocabulary for modern motion pictures, and largely handlettered his work. Definitely worth a visit from art and design mavens, the CJM-SF show is reviewed in this week’s issue.

Last Friday night’s concert of the San Francisco Symphony under conductor James Conlon was a highlight of the season for OT, as pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and SFS Principal Trumpet Mark Inouye took Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (really a dual concerto) and made it shine (reviewed in next week’s issue).

And last Saturday night we made it out to North Beach and the San Francisco Art Institute for the opening of Wrong’s What I Do Best in the Walter and McBean Galleries (it runs through July 26). Curators Hesse McGraw and Aaron Span-

gler led a walk-through of the show with some of the 15 presenting artists, who include Ashley Bickerton, Nikki S. Lee and Kara Walker, and then it was time to celebrate their endeavor. There’s a lot of transgressive art here, including artist Wim Delvoye’s pair of tattooed and taxidermied pigs. Take that, Damien Hirst!

The exhibition’s title comes from a George Jones song, that spectacular drunk, and the party was fueled by some hard-bitten country music.

OT is a big fan.

Choir boys

The Golden Gate Men’s Chorus (GGMC) will bring their musicianship and Bay Area energy to the World Choir Games in Riga, Latvia this July. The largest choral competition in the world, the World Choir Games attracts 20,000 singers and is hosted every two years in a different city. This year, 487 choirs from 59 countries are scheduled to participate. As far as we know, the GGMC is the first openly gay chorus to sing at the event.

The GGMC’s Northern Crossing: Journey to the Baltics concerts will take place on Fri., May 17, at 8 p.m.; Sun., May 18, at 3 p.m.; and Tues., May 20, at 8 p.m., all at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, 3281 16th St. in San Francisco. Tickets are available at ggmc.org.t

Steven Underhill

Artist Wim Delvoye’s tattooed and taxidermied pigs, part of Wrong’s What I Do Best in the Walter and McBean Galleries at SFAI.

Bay_Area_SF.indd 1

4/28/14 1:47 PM

t

Theatre>>

May 1-7, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

Throwing Muses & other attractions

by Richard Dodds

A

n original musical based on pop icon Kristin Hersh’s memoir of a troubled and triumphant year in her life is the centerpiece attraction in the 14th annual DIVAfest. Rat Girl, adapted by Stuart Bousel from Hersh’s book of the same name, runs May 1-24 at Exit Theatre, where all DIVAfest events take place throughout the month.

Rat Girl is described as part rock concert and part experimental theater, and features live performances of Hersh’s songs first recorded with the indiepop group Throwing Muses on their 1986 breakthrough album.

Hersh’s memoir as well as the musical recalls not only finding success, but also such concurrent events as being diagnosed as bipolar, hospitalization, and becoming a single mother at age 19. Former Hollywood star Betty Hutton makes an unexpected appearance in the story; Hersh and Hutton became friends in college, Hutton having resumed her education long after retiring from show business and fighting through her own personal demons.

Exit’s Artistic Director Christina Augello, who shepherded the show into DIVAfest, will play Hutton – who did attend several Throwing Muses concerts – while Bay Area newcomer Heather Kellogg is playing Hersh in the eight-member cast under Claire Rice’s direction. Playwright Bousel, a fan of Throwing Muses and Hersh’s solo work, contacted Hersh after reading Rat Girl, and received her authorization to

proceed with the stage adaptation.

Other DIVAfest attractions for 2014 include The Pas de Quatre, a work-in-progress based on the actual story behind the 19th-century ballet created by Jules Perrot for four of Europe’s most famous, but not necessarily friendly, ballerinas.

Written and directed by Margery Fairchild, the backstage story was devised and will be performed by Catherine Debon, Sarah Moss, Nathan Tucker, and Christina Raymond.

At the White Rabbit Burlesque is the second fully staged production in this year’s DIVAfest. Created by burlesque performers Red Velvet and If-N’Whendy and directed

by Amanda Ortmayer, it puts an Alice in Wonderland spin on the tale of a new performer on her first night at the White Rabbit Burlesque. The creators will be joined on stage by fellow Bay Area burlesque performers Laika Fox, Ophelia Coeur De Noir, Tornado Supertrouble, and Mikka Bonel.

The festival also includes the DIVAS Tell All series that showcases excerpts of writing, music, comedy, and performance art developed at regular DIVAfest presentations.

More information and a detailed schedule of all events are available at divafest.info.

Moon beams

It’s a busy time for 42nd Street Moon, as it closes its current season with a celebrity-adorned musical, enjoys the waiting-list only status of its Rodgers and Hart tribute, and is now selling series tickets to its 2014-

Authoritarian tango

Dina Douglass

Singer-songwriter Kristin Hersh’s memoir Rat Girl was the inspiration for a new musical that is the centerpiece of the 2014 DIVAfest.

Burlesque artist Red Velvet is a co-creator and performer in At the White Rabbit Burlesque, which is also part of DIVAfest at Exit Theatre.

15 season.

The personable and distinctive Bruce Vilanch is the celebrity attached to Du Barry Was a Lady, running through May 18 at Eureka Theatre. Vilanch is playing the role created by Burt Lahr in the 1939 Cole Porter musical. Actually, make that roles, for the plot crafted by Herbert Fields and Buddy De Sylva has a washroom attendant named Louis who somehow time travels to 18th-century France, where he takes on the persona of Louis XV. There he finally gets to express his love for May, a nightclub singer in his real life, who has turned into maitresse-en-titre, or chief mistress to the king.

Ethel Merman played May/Du Barry in the original production, with the role going to Ashley Rae Little in the Moon show. All the players are in fact double-cast as 1939 characters and Versailles counterparts in director-choreographer

Zack Thomas Wilde’s production.

Porter’s score included such future standards as “Do I Love You?” and “Friendship,” though the story was found prurient by some critics.

“Fortunately, Miss Merman and Mr. Lahr are the people to make vulgarity honestly exuberant,” Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times back in 1939.

While Du Barry is the final musical of the season, Thou Swell! Thou Witty! The Rodgers and Hart Salon is the final attraction, with performances on May 12 and 13. Guest star Faith Prince is one good reason for the SRO sign, but a waiting list can be joined by calling 255-8207.

The 2014-15 season of seldomrevived musicals in modest productions kicks off with Do I Hear a Waltz? on Oct. 1. Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim’s 1965 musical based on The Time of the Cuckoo will star Tony nominee Emily Skinner as a habitually single

David Allen

Bruce Vilanch plays a washroom attendant who pines for a nightclub singer Ashley Rae Little in 42nd Street Moon’s production of the 1939 Cole Porter musical Du Barry Was a Lady.

woman open to love during a vacation to Venice.

Also on tap is Sandy Wilson’s The Boyfriend, his 1954 sendup of early Broadway frolics; Cole Porter’s 1943 musical Something for the Boys in a 20th-anniversary production for Moon; the notorious 1991 flop Nick and Nora that had songwriters Charles Strouse and Richard Maltby and librettist Arthur Laurents setting The Thin Man characters to music; and Frank Loesser’s Where’s Charley?, the 1948 vehicle for Ray Bolger based on the cross-dressing comedy Charley’s Aunt. The season’s salon capper will be Inventing Champagne, a tribute to Alan Jay Lerner.

More information on all Moon activities is available at 42ndstmoon. org.t

by Richard Dodds

A

ttention must be paid. And, dear comrades, is it ever in The Letters. The small sea of heads in the rows in front of me at Aurora Theatre’s newly unveiled second stage never wavered from pinpoint focus toward the stage. John W. Lowell’s 85-minute play is an intricate catand-mouse game played out in the inscrutably authoritarian world of Sarah Roland 1930s Soviet Union. If history is repeating itself, that is for another A character known only the Director discussion, because when Lowell (Michael Ray Wisely) tries to charm wrote the play, it was just as George a wary subordinate (Beth Wilmurt) W. Bush was looking into Vladimir in The Letters, set in the 1930s Putin’s soul and seeing sunshine, Soviet Union and now at Aurora Theatre’s new Harry’s Upstage. lollipops, and rainbows.

In The Letters, set in a bland office of an unspecified agency, that copies of the uncensored letters a character known only as the Dihave gone missing, and the Director rector has summoned a low-level desperately needs them retrieved. bureaucrat who is visibly ill at ease The play is schematic by design, at this rare request. The Director is and director Mark Jackson’s profull of easygoing chatter toward the duction confidently hits the beats frumpy Anna, but even his seeminglaid out by the playwright. As the ly innocuous questions provoke reDirector, Michael Ray Wisely ofsponses from Anna that are so carefers an oleaginous charm laced with fully hedged that they convey hints sudden thorns, while Beth Wilmurt of hostility. “It’s such an informative plays Anna with palpable terror that face,” the Director says of Anna’s utfinds its own thorns to thrust. terly deadpan expression.

Set designer Maya Linke has tidily Lowell cleverly reveals the Direcprovided the necessary office works tor’s true motivations in gradually in the small rectangle that is the increasing doses, and Anna begins stage in Harry’s Upstage, a comfortdenying accusations yet to be made. able, professionally outfitted space Among her assignments is to redact with tiered seating. Aurora Theatre’s anything in letters and diaries that main auditorium is known for its suggests a famed Russian composer intimacy, and this new venue is an (unnamed, but think Tchaikovsky) even more intimate variation on was an “invert,” the term of the times that. A tense, terse play like The Letfor homosexual. It’s been a challengters is an excellent introduction to ing assignment, Anna admits, for all this welcome new venue.t that can be left of some of his letters are the salutation and the compliThe Letters will run at Aurora mentary close. The Director finds this Theatre’s Harry’s UpStage revolting, while Anna subtly suggests through June 1. Tickets are $28the correspondence could in fact be $32. Call (510) 843-4822 or go to endearing. But that is not the issue; it’s auroratheatre.org.

JEREMY JORDAN

SPENCER DAY

FRANC D’AMBROSIO WITH GLORIA CRAMPTON

JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND

Now - May 4

June 6 - 7

May 15 - 17

June 21 - 22

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

090530.03_HNSF_Feinsteins_2014_Q2_Bay_Area_Reporter_5_1 ROUND #: MECH

<< Film

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 1-7, 2014

Fear & loathing in illustrated form

by David Lamble

and they were inseparable from then on. Scanlon’s was a fantastic radical publication for its time [the early 70s]. The article on the Derby was about how to forge credit cards.

Scanlon’s was [primarily] devoted to getting Nixon [impeached]!

I

n November 1971, Rolling Stone magazine’s issues 95 & 96 featured some weird dispatches under the byline Raoul Duke, the pen name for self-described “gonzo” journalist Hunter S. Thompson. One piece kicked off with a memorable slice of wacko-mania gibberish.

“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

I remember saying something like, ‘I feel a bit lightheaded, maybe you should drive.’ And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: ‘Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?’

“Then it was quiet again. My attorney had taken his shirt off and poured beer on his chest, to facilitate the tanning process. ‘What the hell are you yelling about?’ he muttered, staring up at the sun with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound Spanish sunglasses. ‘Never mind,’ I said. ‘It’s your turn to drive.’

I hit the brakes and aimed the Great Red Shark toward the shoulder of the highway. No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.”

Fans of Terry Gilliam’s 1998 screen adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas will recognize this early bit of lunacy from a truly unique road-buddy film. The touch that made Thompson’s druggy prose sing was the accompanying stark B&W drawings showing Duke and his frog-faced Samoan attorney.

The drawings, with their bloodsoaked, exploding heads, dazed expressions, and mouths uttering

Charlie Paul, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Johnny Depp and Ralph Steadman in director Charlie Paul’s For No Good Reason, a new documentary about the illustrator/artist.

dastardly oaths, were signed Ralph Steadman.

The Las Vegas articles, later expanded into a book-length version subtitled A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, would later be upstaged by Thompson’s coverage of the 1972 race for the White House, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, in which Thompson imagined bizarre, drug-crazed creatures threatening the sanity and physical safety of one-time Democratic frontrunner Hubert H. Humphrey. Thompson’s purple prose and Steadman’s beyond-surreal drawings gave this duo a special trademark in the history of American political reportage. This week an audacious new bio-doc attempts to tell the English illustrator/ painter Steadman’s story, although the spirit of the late Hunter S. Thompson (he died a few years ago, from a self-inflicted gunshot) keeps it from being entirely Ralph’s story.

Recently I sat down with For No Good Reason’s director, one-time music-videomaker Charlie Paul,

S

and asked why he had devoted much of the past 15 years to a profile of Steadman, complete with a meticulous depiction of his work process.

“My initial interest in Ralph came before Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, because in England he was definitely a significant countercultural figure in art. When Fear and Loathing came out, it just blew me away. It was the most fabulous synergy between art and literature. For me, this guy really nailed a crossover between art and other mediums.

His art was always on the edge of moving into something else. It was volatile and dangerous, and as an animator I appreciated this volatility. So that’s how I approached bringing Ralph’s art to the screen.”

David Lamble: How did Ralph connect with Hunter?

Charlie Paul: Ralph first met Hunter when Hunter was covering the Kentucky Derby. Warren Hinkle [then the editor of Scanlon’s magazine] introduced them at the Derby,

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One of your themes is the waning of young people’s faith in the transformative powers of the counterculture.

Yes, for an artist like Ralph, who has spent his entire life trying to highlight things that are wrong and should be changed, to find out that the world has become in some ways a worse place after all that effort is quite disconcerting, quite depressing.

It’s hard to keep the legend of Hunter S. Thompson from overshadowing Ralph’s story, because Hunter was such a peculiar guy.

Hunter’s main preoccupation was himself. And for all his brilliance, Hunter’s career sort of tailed off, while Ralph has grown ever more prolific as an artist. Ralph is a good illustration of why you shouldn’t

t

take drugs, because Hunter really ruined himself on drugs, whereas Ralph has never taken drugs, and his brain remains fit and active.

There’s the paradox that Ralph’s persona was far less radical than Hunter’s, yet his art is far more radical.

Absolutely. Ralph draws stuff that he would never utter, because you can draw things that the viewer has to put their own words to, and Ralph is brilliant at pointing us to these things while never having to actually say them.

He’s almost a throwback to the 19th-century American cartoonist Thomas Nast, who drew these sharp caricatures of political figures of his day.

Ralph was very much a political cartoonist in the UK until he realized that the politicians he was savaging wanted to keep the drawings and hang them in their toilet rooms.

So he famously decided he would never paint another political figure again. From then on, he only ever drew politicians’ feet.t

Obsessive love

by Tim Pfaff

T

he step from being a respected work to one that brings the house down is one of an opera’s longest journeys. Last year’s remarkable Britten anniversary, the most productive international composer celebration in my experience, brought a startling number of the gay composer’s works back firmly into the active repertory and – through performances that have recently been released on DVD – gave two of his problematic operas, The Rape of Lucretia and Death in Venice, a new foothold on the stature they warrant.

With Peter Grimes and Billy Budd as solid as they are in the international repertoire, Death in Venice may never shed the “perhaps” that sticks to music professionals’ evaluation of it as Britten’s greatest opera.

But I’ve thought it that ever since the SF Opera’s enterprising Spring Opera Theater gave the piece its US premiere in 1975, a mere three years after its premiere at the Aldeburgh Festival, Britten’s Bayreuth, at his home on the Suffolk coast.

Until this release of English National Opera’s path-breaking Death in Venice (Opus Arte), revived for the Britten Year, the opera has had a poor history on DVD, which can’t have helped its future onstage. Despite Britten’s airborne music, and even for someone who has seen the opera staged, no audio-only recording (and there have been several fine ones) can compensate for the fact that Britten’s Tadzio is a dancer and must be seen for Aschenbach’s obsession with him to strike home fully. In Sam Zaldivar, finally we have a dancer who looks plausibly adolescent and plays his awareness of Aschenbach’s desperate, one-sided yearning with softly knowing eyes and a body that’s forever dancing off.

Tenor John Graham-Hall, whose brilliant Peter Grimes at La Scala, captured on another Opus Arte DVD, here similarly breaks the Pears-Tear-Langridge lock on the role and delivers a writer destroyed by erotic impulses he cannot withstand in a more universal, less specifically British way (though he, too, is British), less extreme of manner and mannerism, more extreme in embodiment of his feelings. He’s an Aschenbach you sympathize with from the start. In Deborah Warner’s wonderfully transparent production, his second trip to the barber really does yield a more handsome man – not the grotesque

of Visconti’s film and, to an extent, Mann’s novella – and Tadzio’s subtle registering of the difference, and its meaning, are typical of this production’s fine sensibility.

Andrew Shore, a much-used Wagner Alberich these days, is the soul of invention in the half-dozen realistic roles he has in Myfanwy Piper’s libretto, equally affecting as nemesis, lackey and spirit guide.

Countertenor Tim Mead, as Apollo (not just a voice here), is handsome and liquid, and subtly makes the argument that the Apollonian is merely the other side of the Dionysian, not its cure.

In this man’s opera, the “minor” parts for women (who get the same detailed attention from Britten) are sung with individuality and affectingly, particularly Madeleine Shaw’s Beggar Woman, understated but providing a powerful, grounding contrast in this world of seethrough Venetian luxury. Designer Tom Pye’s open, atmospheric sets capture Venice and the Lido with a minimum of strokes, and Jean Kalman’s lighting makes it pulse.

Edward Gardner, a more important Britten conductor with his every appearance, finds the shimmer in every facet of this spare but vividly refracted score. Britten’s late-period, gamelan-style writing for the See page 17 >>

t

Dance>>

May 1-7, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

Vernal frolics

by Paul Parish

T

he world premiere of a new evening-length ballet by Mark Morris is a big deal, and critics were in from as far away as New York for the opening night of Acis and Galatea in Berkeley at Zellerbach Hall, where Cal Performances not only presented it but had commissioned its creation (along with a consortium of other presenters).

The problems that kept breaking the spell on opening night (Friday) melted away on Saturday, when the combination of baroque music, wonderfully played and gloriously sung by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorus, and limpid dancing by the Mark Morris Dance Group, drew you in and held the mind engaged in a delight so intense you hardly noticed the passage of time. My predecessor here, the late Stephanie von Buchau, considered a Mark Morris dance performance “a religious experience.” I wish she had lived to see this.

The Acis is a river in Sicily, which according to the ancient poet Ovid rose from the blood of the shepherd Acis, beloved by the nymph Galatea, who transformed his bleeding corpse into the fountainhead of the stream after he was killed by the jealous monster Polyphemus, As a story, there’s not much more to Acis and Galatea than there is to Bambi Meets Godzilla: once the fight starts, it’s over. But the prelude to that fight is a fabulous pretext for a pastoral oratorio, with explorations of the changing moods of young lovers exquisitely drawn-out in arias, duets, choruses, outbursts of despair, love-longings. An outburst of flutes and clarinets in the orchestra depicts bird-song, which makes poor Galatea begin to burn with longing for Acis and cry out in despair. Baroque opera is the 18thcentury version of the blues, except with more resources for developing the finer shades of “I’ve got it bad.”

This is just like the blues signer who can’t stand the drip-drop of the rain. (“I’m bout to blow my top, I wish this rain would hurry up and stop!”) One mood yields to another; our boy nearly loses his job for neglecting his sheep. Morris’ dancers are hilarious as they pretend to be little lost sheep, or as they hang out to ask directions from a tenor who’s got a very long flight of coloratura to finish before he can give him their attention, and they wander off again before he can finish his phrase.

The premise is, the four singers (two lovers, a confidante, and the monster) are onstage, and so are the dancers, who function as a silent chorus, and by their actions create a sympathetic environment. They echo the lovers, sympathize, warn, cajole, and

<<

Britten operas

From page 16

dance sequences can go off in the wrong hands, but Gardner sneaks them into the absorbing instrumental textures almost unnoticed. The dancing, all by young men in this production, is transfixing.

The “problem” with Death in Venice will always be its direct depiction of an older man’s desire for a beautiful boy, which will probably always make audiences squirm. Even so, from the beginning, The Rape of Lucretia, a chamber opera composed after the grand opera of Billy Budd, has been a harder sell. Musically even more austere than Death in Venice, it has the tricky frame of a Male and Female Chorus narrating and commenting on the action throughout, a real rape and its consequent suffering – and a disjunctive overlay of seeming Christian theologizing about the matter that sheds no light and is off-putting, to say the least, to most

deepen all the passions that occupy the principals, and they also illustrate and elaborate the feeling-tones created by the orchestra and musical chorus, “invisible” in the pit.

The English poet John Gay, who’s most famous for The Beggar’s Opera, wrote the excellent libretto (with Courtesy MMDG the help of Alexander Pope, no less), which Mark Morris Dance Group in rehearsal for Georg Frideric Handel Acis and Galatea. first set in 1718 as an oratorio and went on to revise many times Galatea and has more than enough for restagings in different venues, muscle to rape her if it comes to including a Tivoli-style amusement that. The chorus responds to his park with a fountain that figured aria, “O ruddier than the cherry, O in the denouement. It’s considered sweeter than the berry, O nymph perhaps the greatest pastoral opera more bright, Than moonshine ever composed, and has never fallen night, Like kidlings blithe and merout of the rep. A very famous British ry!” by making it clear he’s a troll. production of 60 years ago starring He grabs at them, and they hate it, Joan Sutherland (www.youtube. he pinches a cute boy’s nipples as he com/watch?v=Sm5tsoTbAwI) will sings about the cherry, and that cute give you an idea – especially since boy collapses and dies. By the end last week’s soprano Sherezade Panof the aria, there’s a whole heap of thaki has a radiance in her upper tricks he’s kicked to the curb. register unsurpassed by SutherThe greatest dance of the whole land’s, not to mention a willingevening is a march in 3/4 time beness to move about the stage while gun by the brilliant Laurel Lynch, singing that puts some of her purely who dances as Damon sings of his vocal effects into jeopardy, but givdetermination to fight the monen her talent, generosity and game ster and save Galatea; he’s doomed, spirit, made us love her all the more. of course, and the dancer knows Morris has choreographed the it while the singer does not. The singers’ moves as well as his dancers; dancer is rigid in the upper body, on opening night, there was trouble like an Irish step-dancer. The lower for the singers, mostly because they body makes huge flashing gestures, could not sing out, they were movwith fan-kicks, but the torso is stiff ing so much. Damon, the confidante, as death; as the aria repeats, the solo has a beautiful voice and is brilliant woman is replaced by pairs of men in coloratura, but he could use a who repeat the same dance holding mike. The others all recovered by the hands. It finishes with them all linksecond night. Acis (Thomas Cooley) ing hands and wheeling into place fit into the movements just fine, and like a ridge in a mountain chain; sang with heart-melting fervor. they look like Brokeback Mountain.

Acis breaks into two halves, and The dancers wear lettuce-leaf skirts the second is much less happy: “the of green chiffon – the men are barecourse of true love never did run chested and magnificent, the women smooth.” It begins with a haunthave modest torso-covering. But the ing chorus, matched with eloquent skirts are always rolling and floating melting choral dancing for the throughout the evening, no matter whole cast. Morris’ power here is what steps the dancers take. So the so strong, one can’t help but reflect overall effect of the dance is like water how the power of classical Greek over rocks, like the Acis River in full tragedy lay in the choruses, who flow. The outcroppings of momentary danced as well as sang. statuesque poses are beautiful, arrestDouglas Williams, the barihunk ing, even haunting – but nothing lasts bass-baritone who sang the role of for long, and it’s all about the flow. the preening macho thug PolypheI could watch it again and again. A mus, is a natural acrobat. The guy’s friend said she could watch it every a hunka hunka burning love, and night for the next two weeks and not enters borne aloft at the beginning be tired of it. Another, who’s a poet, of the second act by the MMDG emailed me that “anytime dance (or dancers like a giant shot out of a anything else for that matter) recannon, kicking his legs out, landminds me of the pleasure of being in ing and caught back up by the waves a body, it has done its job. I couldn’t of dancers and re-launched, ready think of a better vernal frolic.” I felt to sing, “I rage! I burn!” and act the the same thing, and could not say it part of the stalker who terrorizes any better.t present-day theater-goers.

Last year’s release of Virgin Classics’ recording, of the audio-only of an Oliver Knussen-led 2011 performance at Aldeburgh, was the finest ever, again fielding a more universal, international sensibility – and extraordinary musicianship. But a superb 2001 production from Aldeburgh, a BBC-TV video recording in its first commercial release by Opus Arte, erases any doubt about the work’s tremendous power when staged, as it is here, with uncluttered thrust, by David McVicar, and a very British cast that knows the piece to its most remote corners.

John Mark Ainsley and Orla Boylan sing vividly as the Choruses, and when Ainsley sings of Tarquinius’ furious horseback chase to despoil Lucretia, the effect is overwhelming.

The stripped-down ENO Orchestra (and uncredited but powerful pianist), under Paul Daniel, briefly depart from the score’s austerity to make fearful, gut-wrenching music.

Ronald Duncan’s libretto lays on

the misogyny with a trowel, and the male cast doesn’t finesse it. The equally superb female cast could not plead Lucretia’s – or women’s – case more strongly. Where you forget you’re in the theater is during the rape, or at least the part of it the opera stages.

Christopher Maltman, now one of the finest Lieder singers of our day, as Tarquinius in 2001 looked like a young Jude Law, the more when his shirt came off for the rape, and sang like the god Eros. The only thing that could possibly be said against it is that it begs the question Britten famously dodged in his setting, namely, does the love-starved Lucretia at this moment want sex with Tarquinius, if not rape? (Several great singers of the role have opined yes.) In an exalted performance as Lucretia, Sarah Connolly sings unsparingly of the consequences of the sex that ensues, including on Lucretia’s part.

It’s a powerfully, deliberately disturbing work that shows its power is unfading.t

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<< Out&About

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 1-7, 2014

Our Vast Queer Past @ GLBT History Museum

Fri 2

Main exhibit room is closed for a new exhibit installation until May 15, but front area exhibits are open. Reg. hours Mon-Sat 11am-7pm (closed Tue.) Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

Iconoclasm

Out &About

O&A

Jon Macy’s Fearful Hunter at Gay Comics Threeway

Graphic Images

by Jim Provenzano

R

emember when just the mere image of a gay or lesbian couple hugging or kissing made your heart race? Kids today. They have no idea what it was like to sneak a copy of After Dark from a Waldenbooks back in the day. Fortunately, Books Inc, our fave local bookstore, this week showcases a touching memoir (see the lead feature in the BARtab section), a gay wedding book, and even a drag queen reading from saucy tomes. And, Lambda Literary Award finalists read at the Public Library.

Elsewhere, sexy gay comic/graphic novel artists get an exhibit and a bar night, plus gay guys gather to draw nude hunks in a SoMa studio. With the wealth of queer stuff being shared this week, I feel almost spoiled.

Eating Cultures @ SOMArts Cultural Center

Thu 1

Group exhibit of the Asian American Women Artists Association features 30 artists’ works, including three lesbians (Kay Cuajunco, Sigi Arneho, Genevieve Erin O’Brien), who focus on food as a cultural lens. Opening reception 6pm-9pm. Special events thru the run. Thru May 30. 934 Brannan St. www.somarts.org

Berkeley Symphony @ Zellerbach Hall The symphony performs works by Beethoven, Salonen and Saariaho, with guest mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor. $15-$74. 8pm. Telegraph Ave and Bancroft, UC Berkeley campus. (510) 8412800. www.berkeleysymphony.org

Hot Draw @ Mark I. Chester Studio

Chomp! @ Conservatory of Flowers

Erotic fetish drawing group features men posing nude or in kinky gear and poses.

Doantions. 6:30-9:30pm. 1229 Folsom St. RSVP: 621-6294. www.markichester.com

They Came From the Swamp, a new floral exhibit of carnivorous plants includes exhibits, docent talks and a giant replica model so you can feel like a bug about to be eaten. Thru Oct. 19. Reg. hours, 10am4pm. Free-$7. Tue-Sun 10am-4:30pm.

Extended thru March 16. 100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park. 831-2090. www.conservatoryofflowers.org

Jeremy Jordan @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The handsome pop singer performs his solo cabaret show. $45-$60. 8pm. Also May 2, 8pm; May 3 & 4, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.ticketweb.com

Designing Homes @ Contemporary Jewish Museum

Lambda Literary Award Finalists @ SF Public Library

Jews and Midcentury Modernism, an exhibit of architectural, furniture, dinnerware, photos, and interior design in post-WWII. Also, Arthur Szyk and the Art of the Haggadah, an exhibit of 48 fascinating and richly detailed illustrations of Hebrew stories by the early 20th-century artist (thru June 29). Also, To Build & Be Built: Kibbutz History (thru July 1).

2pm-5pm. Free (members)-$12. Thu-Tue 11am-5pm (Thu 1pm-8pm) 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Des Voix; Found in Translation @ Various Theatres Month-long festival of contemporary French playwrights and films, in partnership with Cutting Ball Theater, the French International School and the French consulate. Thru May 25. www.desvoixfestival.com

Dracula @ Shelton Theatre Jennifer Keller and Lauren Davidson’s new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic vampire novel. $30. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru May 31.

533 Sutter St. at Powell. (800) 838-3006. www.sfdracula.blogspot.com

Bay Area authors nominated for the LGBT literary award include Jason K. Friedman, Randall Mann, Jean Ryan, Laura Antoniou, Deborah Ross, Ali Liebegott, Ronald Palmer, Joyce Thompson, Toby Bielawski, Karin Kallmaker, Jay Davidson and Daniel Rivers. 5:30pm reception, readings 6pm.

Latino/Hispanic Meeting Room, lower level, 100 Larkin St. 557-4400. www.lambdalit.org www.sfpl.org

New and Classic Films @ Castro Theatre May 1: Daisies (7:30) and Times Square (9pm). May 2, SF Int. FilmFest. May 3, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (3:45, 8:30) and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (5:30).

May 4 & 11, Disney’s Frozen Sing-along (1pm). May 4, Diva & Breathless. May 7, The Holy Mountain, $11. 429 Castro St. 621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com

Gay comic Bruce vilanch stars in 42nd street Moon’s production of the saucy Cole Porter historical musical comedy about a nightclub washroom attendant who passes out and finds himself in 18thcentury France as King Louis XV. $25-$75. Wed & Thu 7pm. Fri 8pm. Sat 6pm. Sun 3pm. Thru May 18. 215 Jackson St. 255-8207. www.42ndStMoon.org

Thea Dodds and Kathryn Hamm’s The New Art of Capturing Love

The Letters @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley John W. Lowell’s suspenseful twoperson psychological thriller about life under the Stalin regime. $28$32. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru June 1. 2081 Addison St., Berkeley.

(510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

Queer Ancestors Project @ LGBT Center An exhibition of prints by queer artists age 18 to 26, with Corey Brown, Joan Chen, Jared Clifton, Amman Desai, Paula Graciela Kahn, Amirah Mizrahi, Courtney Stock & Terry Xiao, and artistic director Katie Gilmartin. Exhibit thru May 16. 1800 Market St. www.sfcenter.org

SF International Film Festival @ Bay Area Cinemas

Cirque de l’Arc benefits The Ar Arc Ally Mentors for ad

Films from around the world are screened at various theatres. $20-$50. Thru May 8. www.festival.sffs.org

Sleeping Cutie @ Thick House Doug Katsaros and Diane Sampson’s musical about a narcolepic teenage girl and her jailed father’s pursuit to get her married. $30-$40. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru May 11. 1695 18th St. at Arkansas. 992-6677. www.sleepingcutiemusical.org

Unusual Shorts @ Oddball Films Enjoy wacky offbeat vintage short films.

Thu & Fri, each $10, 8pm. 275 Capp St. 558-8117. www.oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Fri 2 ArtWear @ de Young Museum Annual sale and showcase of handmade jewelry and wearable art in the Piazzoni Murals Room (museum members get 10% off). 9:30am-8:30pm, Also May 3, 9:30am-4:30pm. Also, Georgia O’Keeffe: Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George, a new exhibit of paintings focusing on the artist’s New York landscapes. $25. Thru May 11. Also, Lines on the Horizon: Native American Art from the Weisel Family Collection, thru Jan. 4, 2015. Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoungmuseum.org

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

Communiqué No. 10 @ Exit on Taylor Cutting Ball Theatre company’s production of the American premiere of French playwright Samuel Gallet’s drama about tensions in the urban underclass, Muslim and French violence, revenge and riots; translated and directed by Rob Melrose. $10-$50. Thru May 25. 277 Taylor St. 5251205. www.cuttingball.com

Company C Ballet @ ODC Theater

Five Funny Females @ Great Star Theater

Du Barry Was a Lady @ Eureka Theatre

Rizzo’s exhibit of colorful portraits.

Thru May 31. 4058 18th St. www.castrocountryclub.org

Opening reception of a duo exhibit of provocative pop culture imagery

by Arnix and Max Papeschi. 6pm8pm. Thru May 31. Reg hours Tue-Sat 10:30am-6pm. 49 Geary St. #200. 986-4799. www.mgart.com

Thrillpeddlers’ hilarious Cockettes revival returns, with new choreogrpahy, costumes, performers, and several of the original cast members. $30-$35.

Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru May 31. 575 10th St. (800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

The East Bay dance company performs works by Charles Anderson, Maurice Casey, Charles Moulton and Patrick Corbin. $25$48. 8pm. May 1-3, 8pm. 3153 17th St. 863-6606. www.odctheater.org

Tue 6

Donald Rizzo @ Castro Country Club

Iconiclasm @ The McLoughlin Gallery

Pearls Over Shanghai @ The Hypnodrome

Fri 2

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Susan Alexander hosts two nights of different five-women line-ups with numerous talented comics. $20. May 2, 8pm: Erikka Innes, Alison Kawa, Renee Gauthier, Luna Michelle, Joselyn Highes. 10pm show: Joselyn Hughes, Kat Evasco, Renee Gauthier, Glory Magana and Chantal Carrere. May 3, 8pm: Molly Sokhom, Lydia Popovich, Ruby Gill, Priya Prasad and Sandy Stec.

10pm: Chantal Carrerre, Paloma Cordova, Lilybeth Helson, Glamis Rory and Erikka Innes. BYOB (really!). 636 Jackson St. at Kearny.

5funnyfemales.eventbrite.com

Advance Tickets: arccirque2014.eventbrite.com

The Arc San Francisco, 1500 Howard St., SF, CA 94103

Honorary Chairs: Jerry Coletti, Bevan Dufty, Sen. Mark Leno & Donna Sachet

First Friday Shorts @ New Parkway Theater, Oakland Free monthly short film screenings, this time including Queer Rebels’ array of LGBT films. 6pm. 474 24th St., Oakland. www.thenewparkway.com

Five Women Wearing the Same Dress @ College of Marin Student production of the comic play by gay writer-director Alan Ball ( Six Feet Under, American Beauty, True Blood ) about five reluctant bridesmaids at a Southern wedding reception. $10-$20.

8pm. Also May 3, 9 & 10, 8pm. May 4 & 11, 2pm. Studio Theatre, 835 College Ave., Kentfield. 485-9385. www. brownpapertickets.com

Gay Comics Threeway @ Magnet Opening reception for an exhibit of queer comic art by Ed Luce, Justin Hall and Jon Macy. 8pm-10pm. Exhibit thru May 31.

4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org Also, May 3, release party for Jon Macy’s Fearful Hunter, 7pm-10pm at Truck, 1900 Folsom St. www.trucksf.com

Marcus Shelby Orchestra @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley The acclaimed conductor and his 16-piece ensemble perform a Duke Ellington swing tribute. $22-$88. 8pm. Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., UC Berkeley campus. www.calperformances.org

Not a Genuine Black Man @ Osher Studio, Berkeley Brian Copeland’s tenth anniversary run of his compelling autobiographical solo show gets restaged at Berkeley Repertory’s studio theatre. $14-$430. Wed 7pm.

Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru May 31. Osher Studio, 2055 Center St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

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

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Out&About>>

The Suit @ Geary Theatre American Conservatory Theatre presents Peter Brook, Marie-Helene Estienne and Franck Krawczyk’s adaptation of Can Themba, Mothobi Mutloatse and Barney Simon’s play about Apartheid South Africa and a suit that becomes treated like a person; with live African and jazz music. $20-$140. (Bring donations for Dress for Success and get up to 50% off tickets. See www.act-sf.org for details). Tue-Sat 8pm.

Sun 2pm & 7pm. Thru May 18. 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Tribes @ Berkeley Repertory Nina Raines’ acclaimed drama about a young deaf man who meets a woman with a non-assimilation perspective, which forces him to confront his parents, and the meaning of language. $29-$99. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm.

Sun 7pm. Thru May 18. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Sat 3

May 1-7, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Ho’Ike 2014 @ Hamilton Ampitheater Park, Novato

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee @ Julia Morgan Theatre, Berkeley

Narrative hula performance about a girl in the Kanaka Maoli clan. (Little shade, so bring hats, water, etc). $10. 1pm. Hamilton Parkway, Novato. www.hulaon.org

Berkeley Playhouse performs the Tony Award-winning musical comedy about word-obsessed kids and their families. $17-$60. Thu-Sun various times. Thru May 4. 2650 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 8458542. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org

Intimate Impressionism @ Legion of Honor

Adult Story Time @ Books Inc. Mutha Chucka reads raunchy adult stories at the popular Castro readery; part of California Bookstore Day celebrations.1pm.

2275 Market St. 864-6777. www.booksinc.net

A La Carte & Art @ Downtown Mountain View The annual food, art, drink and music festival fills the streets of the suburban town. 10am-6pm. Thru May 4. Castro Street between Evelyn Ave. and Church St. www.alacarte.miramarevents.com

rc San Francisco’s Anti-Bullying Program and dults with developmental disabilities.

The exhibition includes nearly 70 paintings from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., featuring the work of 19th-century avant-garde painters such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Vincent van Gogh. Also, the Salon Doré, a reconstructed room from the Hotel de La Trémoille, has re-opened. Free/$25. Thru Aug. 3. Lincoln Park, 100 34th Ave. 7503600. www.legionofhonor.famsf.org

Karen Hirst @ Martuni’s The local vocalist’s cabaret show “The Lusty Month of May” includes accompanists Roberta Drake and Tom Shaw. $10. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.TomShawTrio.com

Keith Hollander @ 554 Castro Inspiring Faces, a Graphic Abstraction, the local artist’s series of celebrity pop art portraits; live painting events May 9, 5pm9pm. Thru June 1. 554 Castro St. www.keithhollander.com

Mutt: Let’s All Talk About Race! @ La Val’s Subterranean, Berkeley Impact Theatre company premieres Christopher Chen’s satirical play about desperate racist GOP power brokers who select a token presidential candidate who’s half Asian. $10-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Sun 7pm. 1834 Euclid Ave., Berkeley. www.impacttheatre.com

SuperAwesome: Art and Giant Robot @ Oakland Museum Exhibit of eclectic comic and unusual graphics from contributors to the creative zine Giant Robot, which expanded to websites and retail shops. Multiple engaging hands-on activities thru the run. Also, Judy Chicago: A Butterfly for Oakland, a collection of slides and films of her 1974 Lake Merritt pyrotechnical installation; part of a nationwide group of exhibits celebrating the pioneering feminist artist’s 75th birthday; thru Nov. 30. Free/$15. Reg. hours Wed-Sat 11am-5pm (Fri til 9pm). 1000 Oak St., Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

Thu 1 Sleeping Cutie Mellopix.com

Mark Foehringer Dance Project @ Kunst-Stoff Arts

Chicks with Shticks @ SF Public Library

The local dance company’s open house in their new home includes performance excerpts, discussions and intro with the staff and performers. 3:30-6pm. One Grove St. at Market. www.mfdpsf.org

The Kinsey Sicks and 20 Years of Dragapella Activism, a new exhibit about the musical ensemble; thru July 10. Also, Pretty in Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896-2013, 4th floor. Thru June 5. 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

Michael Nesmith @ Great American Music Hall The former member of The Monkees, producer of the cult hit Repo Man, and other projects (like starting MTV), performs (non-Monkees) music with his folk-rock band. $50-$75. 8pm. 859 O’Farrell St. 885-0750. www.slimspresents.com

The World of Mary Blair @ Walt Disney Museum Magic, Color, Flair, an exhibit of original art work from the innovative production design artist for Disney’s Peter Pan, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and other films, and the iconic attractions at Walt Disney World like the “It’s a Small World” ride; thru Sept. 7. Also, Leading Ladies and Femme Fatales: The Art of Marc Davis, including original drawings of Cruella DeVille, Tinkerbell and other iconic characters; thru Nov. 4. 104 Montgomery St. www.waltdisney.org

Fri 2 Wittenberg

Young Frankenstein @ Lucie Stern Theater, Palo Alto

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Tipped & Tipsy @ The Marsh A “Best of Fringe” show, Jill Vice’s solo work portrays an array of characters from the bartending world. $15-$50. Sat 5pm, Sun 7pm. Extended thru May 17. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Waxing West @ Brava Theater Center Vidhu Singh directs the West Coast premiere of Savian Stanescu’s drama about a Romanian mail-order bride’s life in Bucharest and New York. $20. Thu-Sat 8pm; Sun 3pm. Thru May 18. 2781 24th St. www.brava.org

Wittenberg @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley David Davalo’s comedy debates religion versus faith; set in 1517 at the University of Wittenberg, it includes senrio classmen Hamlet’s comic debates with Martin Luther and philosopher John Faustus. $32-$50.

Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm.

Thru May 11. 2081 Addison St., Berkeley.

(510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

David Sokosh: American Tintypes @ Robert Tat Gallery The fine art photography gallery presents an exhibit of Sokosh’s contemporary faux-vintage imagery, created with a 19thcentury Wet-Plate Collodion process. TueSat 11am-5:30pm. Thru May 31. 49 Geary St., #410. 781-1122. www.roberttat.com

Erin Crociani @ Glama-Rama Salon, Oakland Exhibit of paintings that blend Alice in Wonderland with Victorian pin-up girls. Thru June 5. 6399 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. (510) 655-4526. www.glamarama.com

Feisty Old Jew @ The Marsh Charlie Veron’s new solo show about a fictional elder man who hitches a ride with surfer-hipsters, and rants about what he hates about the 21st century. $25-$100.

Sat & Sun 5pm. Extended thru July 13.

1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Palo Alto Players’ production of the monstrously good musical based on the Mel Brooks film. $26-$48. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 2:30pm. Thru May 11. 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. (650) 3290891. www.paplayers.org

Meditation Group @ LGBT Center New weekly non-sectarian meditation group; part of the Let’s Kick ASS AIDS Survivor Syndrome support group.

Tuesdays, 5pm, 1800 Market St. www.

LetsKickASS.org www.sfcenter.org

Thea Dodds, Kathryn Hamm @ Books Inc. President of GayWeddings.com and founder of Authentic Eye Phrotography discuss and sign copies of their photo book, The New Art of Capturing Love: The Essential Guide to Lesbian and Gay Wedding Photography. 7:30pm. 2275 Market St. 864-6777. www.booksinc.net

The acclaimed jazz vocalist performs with guitarist Jerry Holland. Weekly 5pm-8pm.

Also Thursdays & Fridays. JW Marriott, 515 Mason St. at Post. www.sonyholland.com

Yoga: The Art of Transformation @ Asian Art Museum New exhibit of visual art representing the 2,500-year-old health practice.

Other ongoing exhibits as well. Free (members)-$12. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. 200 Larkin St. 581-3500. www.asianart.org David Allen

Mon 5 10 Percent @ ComCast 104 David Perry’s weekly talk show features local and visiting LGBT people. This week, psychotherapist Adam Blum, and John Dennis of the SF Department of Public Works discusses the Castro Streetscapes project. Mon-Fri 11:30am & 10:30pm. Sat & Sun 10:30pm. www.davidperry.com

Thu 8 Geoff Hoyle @ The Marsh, Berkeley The veteran comic actor returns with his solo show, Geezer, a nostalgic meditation on his lengthy career and life. $25-$50.

Thu 8pm. Sat. 5pm. Extended thru May 24. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Mark Abramson @ Books Inc. The prolific local author of the “Beach Reading” series reads from and discusses his new memoir, For My Brothers. See feature excerpt in BARtab section.

7:30pm. 2275 Market St. 864-6777. www.booksinc.net

Sun 4 Cabaret Showcase Showdown @ Martuni’s

Wesla Whitfield @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

Season five of the local singing competition revs up with the Cabaret category of Best Pop singer. Sing two songs, bring sheet music, no “click tracks;” with special guest judge Alpha Mulugeta (aka Honey Mahogany). Katya Smirnoff-Skyy and accompanist Joe Wicht cohost. $7. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market.

241-0205.

The veteran cabaret singer, beloved for her jazz interpretations, is accompanied by her husband Mike Greensill. $30-$45.

8pm. Also May 9, 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

How Weird Street Faire @ Howard & 2nd Blast off to outer space at the annual alt/culture freakfest, this year with an alien cosmos theme. Space drag “high”ly encouraged. Multiple stages for DJed and live music, including a Star Wars cantina band; really, plus drinks, food, art and festivities. $10. 12pm-8pm. www.HowWeird.org

Local nightlife host and singer BeBe Sweetbriar’s new streaming web talk show welcomes local celebrities. 7pm. Audience welcome at KOFY-TV, 2500 Marin St. www.BeBeSweetbriar.com

Sony Holland @ Level III

See blooming floral displays, trees and exhibits. Also, daily walking tours and more, at outdoor exhibits of hundreds of species of native wildflowers in a century-old grove of towering Coast Redwoods. Thru May 15. Free-$15.

Daily. Golden Gate Park. 6612-1316. www.SFBotanicalGarden.org

Group exhibition of works that push the boundaries of social, political and personal fault lines. Tue 11am-7pm. Wed-Sat 11am6pm. Thru July 26. Walter and McBean Galleries, 800 Chestnut St. www.sfai.edu

It’s Everything @ KOFY-TV

Wed 7

Woods to Wildflowers @ SF Botanical Gardens

Wrong’s What I Do Best @ SF Art Institute

Tue 6

Sat 3 Mutha Chucka’s Adult Story Time

To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com.

Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication.

For more bar and nightlife events, go to On the Tab in our BARtab section, online at www.ebar.com/bartab

<< Books

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 1-7, 2014

Life during wartime

by Brian Jackle

After given a death sentence of two months, he became an outspoken, controversial AIDS patient advocate. Callen was one of the inventors of safer sex before medicine promoted it, via his contentious pamphlet How to Have Sex in an Epidemic, co-authored with Richard Berkowitz, which opposed abstinence and advocated a positive, adventuresome approach to sex. He founded the Community Research Initiative (CRI) and the group Gay Men with AIDS (GMA), both based on his principle that “for the first time in the history of epidemics, a group of people with a disease have banded together to sponsor a topnotch treatment research in an effort to save our own lives.”

A diva perfectionist, Callen could both enchant and infuriate his friends and enemies. He rejected the drugs-into-bodies philosophy of mainstream AIDS organizations at the time, which implied that because death was inevitable, any experimental drug was worth taking, even if its effectiveness was low and toxicity high. Callen parodied it “as any drug into any body.” He attributed his longevity to not taking these risky drugs, as well as to being a fighter, “passionately committed to living and working hard to stay alive.”

Hemphill started by performing his searing, incisive poetry live in clubs, using a kind of “melodic and intelligent rap music” or dramatic monologue. For him, race was the primary

Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS by Martin Duberman; The New Press, $27.95 oss permeates our foremost contemporary gay historian Martin Duberman’s latest book, with its title communicating the shared pain and bewilderment of a community under siege. This narrative history of the early period (1981-95) of the AIDS epidemic is told through the prism of two alternating lives, the musicianactivist-writer Michael Callen and the poet-provocateur Essex Hemphill.

The two gay men never met and had little in common, but both died of the disease at the unspeakably young age of 38. One of the themes haunting these pages is how dissimilar the experience of AIDS was for the white gay community (represented by Callen) and the black gay one (represented by Hemphill). Callen is recalled as a singer with the a cappella group the Flirtations, and Hemphill for his appearance in Marlon Riggs’ documentary Tongues Untied, which created a firestorm when it was televised on PBS in 1990. Duberman makes the case that both men accomplished much more than their public remembrance, and filters their lives through the “relationship of race, sexuality, class, identity, and the politics of AIDS activism.”

Callen was a long-term survivor of AIDS, first diagnosed in 1982.

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source of his selfhood. He wrote, “I’m a black man first, and my sexuality falls in line after that,” though later he was sympathetic to Riggs’ message in Tongues, “that you are many things within one person.”

Hemphill also realized that AIDS interacted with other crises such as lack of health care, homelessness, drug addiction, poverty, heterosexual black homophobia, and particularly white racism. In 1986, African Americans, though comprising only 12% of the population, had 25% of all diagnosed AIDS cases, often waiting until the end stages of the disease to seek treatment. Hemphill would cultivate all these themes into his poetry, as well as into his anthology about black and gay identities, Brothers to Brothers. He became a key figure in the Second Harlem Renaissance of the 1980s. He was more of a cultural activist than a political one. As their health declined, both men retreated from public activism and took refuge in their creativity, producing stellar work at the end of their lives.

Duberman reminds us that neither Callen nor Hemphill gave into despair. While he presents us with two exemplary but flawed artists, how completely either man is portrayed is open to question. In Callen’s case, Duberman omits any discussion of his influential book Surviving AIDS; the use of his AIDS anthem “Living in Wartime” in Larry Kramer’s play The

Normal Heart; and his profile in the important 1990 documentary Positive, by Rosa von Praunheim. While Duberman quotes generously from Hemphill’s poems, he offers no commentary or assessment, as is true of his presentation of Michael’s music.

If Duberman had focused less on the more direct, confrontational AIDS activism (such as ACT UP), in which neither Callen or Hemphill participated, he could have produced richer portrayals of both men. Also, the epidemic history presented is slanted primarily through a New York lens, and

by Duberman’s diary entries and historical reminiscences to fill the gaps, yet it is far from complete.

These quibbles aside, Duberman resurrects these two gay icons in our

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memory, and recreates the chaos and despair of those early years, indicting the criminal neglect of the Reagan federal and New York City local governments, the medical bureaucracy which delayed treatment and rapid access to new drugs, the sexual culture that allowed the disease initially to thrive, and the infighting of the conflicting gay community and AIDS organizations. At times, these groups seemed more interested in turf wars and projecting a positive media image than instituting publichealth measures to save lives. No one comes out untarnished, yet with death omnipresent, it seems near-miraculous that the gay community managed to embrace its own in caring for the dying and advocating for new treatments.

Lest we overly congratulate ourselves, Duberman reminds us that AIDS is still very much with us, even if a sense of urgency has disappeared. In the US, gay men compose half of the one million people currently infected. Treatment (and no cure) of the newly infected lags, probably because the disease now infects primarily poor, young ethnic minorities, with black men accounting for 45% of new AIDS diagnoses.

The racism deplored by Hemphill still impacts how we view and treat AIDS today. Sadly, Duberman’s history, with its battlefield metaphors, is as relevant and heartbreaking today as it was 30 years ago.t

Her body of work

by Gregg Shapiro

two books, Restoring the Color of Roses (1993) and My Lesbian Husband (2000). But Body Geographic unfolds differently, spinning on its own unique axis, and veined with roads traveled and landscapes reclaimed. It’s a finalist in the Lesbian Memoir category for the Lambda Literary Award.

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ody Geographic (U. of Nebraska), the third memoir by lesbian writer Barrie Jean Borich, is a queer travelogue full of personal and historical details seamlessly woven into a one-of-a-kind atlas quilt.

It contains echoes of Borich’s first

Here we grow again!

Multimedia Sales Associate The Bay Area Reporter, America’s longest continuouslypublished and highest circulation LGBT newspaper, is looking for a Multimedia Sales Executive.

If you are looking for a fast-paced environment with a growing company, that opportunity is here. Your focus will be managing existing and establishing new partnerships with local retailers, clubs, restaurants, national brands and ad agencies to create sales strategies and find new business opportunities in print, digital and mobile advertising and marketing initiatives.

The earning potential for the right candidate is unlimited, with a competitive base salary and lucrative incentive plan.

BAR Media, Inc. offers a comprehensive benefit package that includes Medical, Dental and matching 401(k).

Please e-mail us your resume and cover letter at advertising@ebar.com, telling us why you would be great on the Bay Area Reporter’s team. Only qualified candidates will be contacted.

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second section 57

Boston, P-town travel

40th anniv., readers' poll

Considering Balenciaga

The

www.ebar.com

Serving the gay, lesbian,

REPORT CITES HEALTH GAPS

Traditionally, IOM committees are asked to identify research gaps and priorities within a field. “But that paradigm does not fit for this area,” chair Dr. Robert Graham said at the March 31 news conference releasing the report.

See page 24 >>

Our new look

The Bay Area Reporter decided to update its look now that we’re 40.

So we’ve made some slight design changes in both sections of the paper, with new fonts, and in the case of the Arts and Culture section, a new name.

Most significantly, our website has been updated to allow for video with stories, and readers can now comment directly on our online content if they are friends on Facebook.▼

communities since 1971

Vol. 41 • No. 14 • April 7-13,

The 2011

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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report released last week detailed the need for more federal research and data collection on the health of LGBT people.

“Lesbian, Bob Roehr gay, bisexual, Dr. Robert Graham and transgender individuals experience unique health disparities.

Although the acronym LGBT is used as an umbrella term, and the health needs of this community are often grouped together, each of these letters represents a distinct population with its own health concerns,” stated the summary of the report, written by the prestigious Institute of Medicine.

“Furthermore, among lesbians, gay men, bisexual men and women, and transgender people, there are subpopulations on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic based status, geographic location, age, and other factors,” the report continued.

While that summary statement is not news to anyone familiar with the LGBT community, the fact that it was made in the IOM report, which was commissioned by the National Institutes of Health, adds new meaning and credibility to shaping health policy, which that heretofore had been lacking.

bisexual, and transgender

Community looks back at 40 years of the B.A.R.

by Bob Roehr

Founding publisher Bob Ross

or 40 years now, the Bay Area Reporter has informed, entertained, and frequently miffed people in San Francisco and beyond.

The paper started when Bob Ross – chef, Tavern Guild president, and bar culture insider – launched it with business partner Paul Bentley. The first issue was dated April 1, 1971 but hit the streets on April 2, Ross’s 37th birthday. Ross pasted up all the pages by hand, copied them, and delivered them to local bars.

In the beginning, nobody took the paper too seriously.

by Seth Hemmelgarn

he past year has seen several setbacks in San Jose’s LGBT community, even as data from the 2010 census recently revealed that the South Bay berg is now the 10th largest city in the country.

Recent events, however, have made it seem that for a city with almost 1 million people, there’s not much strength in the gay community there.

Last month, the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center canceled its 30th anniversary party, which had been planned for March 26. Only about 40 tickets had been sold.

Last November, the Silicon Valley AIDS Leadership Center, which had organized the annual Walk for AIDS, announced its closure.

And about three months before that, in August, the Gay Pride Celebration Committee of San Jose Inc. opted not to hold a parade.

Of course, problems at LGBT organizations aren’t unique to San Jose. Several San Francisco agencies have been struggling financially. And people with Pride and the DeFrank center indicate they’re all right.

“We have a vibrant community, and when we can engage them, I think that they’re there,” said Ray Mueller, who joined San Jose Pride’s board earlier this year.

One example is last Thursday’s LGBT night with the San Jose Sharks hockey team. Tickets sold out in 10 days.

Serving the gay, lesbian,

bisexual, and transgender

City to embrace Pride

communities since 1971

Vol. 43 • No. 26 • June 27-July

“To be honest, it was sort of a silly publication,” said Jones, who now works with the Courage Campaign. “Most of the other young people didn’t really have much it. It was basically just announcementsuse for about whatever specials were going on at whatever bar.”

The front covers of many early 1970s issues were dedicated to the Imperial Court’s See page 23 >>

Rick Gerharter Members of the Kaiser Permanente contingent enjoyed the sun and music as they headed down Market Street at last year’s Pride parade.

t’s been a rough year for organizers of the 43rd annual San Francisco LGBT Pride parade and celebration, but Pride chief Earl Plante still sounds enthusiastic about this year’s theme, “Embrace, Encourage, Empower.”

Plante, CEO of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, said that to him, the theme means, “embracing all aspects of our community” and “diversity at all levels.” It also invokes “empowering the broader global LGBT movement.”

“San Francisco Pride is a thought leader ... it has been since its inception,” Plante said.

This year’s Pride festivities begin Saturday with the festival in Civic Center, from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, the celebration in Civic Center runs from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The parade kicks off at 10:30 a.m. at Market and Beale streets and ends at Market and Eighth streets. The Pride festival is free, but a donation of $5 is suggested.

There will be jubilation in the streets as well, following Wednesday’s historic victories at the U.S. Supreme Court.

See page 22 >>

Phyllis Lyon is escorted down the Rotunda stairs in San Francisco City Hall by Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, left, and Mayor Ed Lee.

Court victories!

Rick Gerharter

by Matthew S. Bajko and Lisa

I

Keen

n a stunning double victory, the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday issued decisions that strike down both a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8, California’s same-sex marriage ban.

The DOMA decision, a 5-4 split, was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy and joined by

by Cynthia Laird

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Mueller said the event will generate about $1,000 for this year’s Pride, which is August 2021. A block of about 300 tickets, ranging from $36 to $73, were reserved for the hockey night.

“I think the Sharks event proves people out there to go to something there are that isn’t the usual ‘Let’s go to a gay bar and have a fundraiser,’” said Mueller.

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Center official appears

the four liberal justices of the court. It strikes DOMA as unconstitutional because it the guarantees of equal protection violates and due process.

The DOMA dissent, based largely on matmat ters of standing, was led by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by the court’s three other conservatives.

Activists to honor Mannin g at SF

The Pro-Latino contingent marched in the 2008 San Jose Pride Parade; officials are not yet sure if there will be a Pride Parade this year, although the festival is scheduled for August.

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS

3, 2013

by Seth Hemmelgarn

I

The

’s 2nd Annual Reader’s Choice Awards

Cleve Jones, who said he had an “up and down” relationship with Ross and who was a close friend of slain gay icon Harvey Milk, started reading the paper after his arrival to San Francisco in 1972.

Despite setbacks, LGBT scene in San Jose is ‘vibrant ’

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www.ebar.com

ay Army private Bradley Manning was stripped of his grand marshal status and is 3,000 miles away in Maryland at his court-martial but supporters will honor him in Sunday’s San Francisco LGBT Pride parade anyway.

The Bradley Manning Support Network contingent, which has marched in San Francisco Pride parades for the last two years, is expected to be teeming with activists, probably a couple politicians, and supporters of the WikiLeaks whistle-blower.

In a statement released this week, Manning’s local supporters said in essence that they didn’t care that the San Francisco Pride board refused to honor him – Manning will be their grand marshal.

Manning, 25, is accused of leaking some 700,000 classified government documents to WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website. He has confessed to some of the charges against him, but is being court-martialed on other charges.

The most serious, aiding the enemy, could send him to prison for life.

After initially naming Manning as a grand marshal in late April, the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee board reversed itself two days later. Initially Pride board President Lisa Williams, in a statement, said that it was a “mistake” to name Manning a grand marshal. Later, the board came out with a sec-

Rick Gerharter

hopeful

The DeFrank center has been hobbled by financial and leadership problems in recent years and currently has no full-time executive director. However, Chris Flood, the DeFrank’s board president, indicated that the center’s doing better than it might appear.

He was at a See page 22 >>

}

Photo: Rick Gerharter

parade

The Free Bradley Manning contingent, shown here in last year’s parade, is expected to be larger on Sunday. ond statement that said Manning couldn’t be considered for a community grand marshal slot because he is not local.

After a contentious community meeting May 31, the Pride board declined to recognize Manning in any way for the Pride celebration.

Joey Cain, a former Pride Committee board president and a former parade grand marshal,

was the person who nominated Manning for the honor. He has been by turns, angry, hurt, and disappointed in how the controversy has played out, and the lack of communication and transparency from Pride officials.

“There’s a major leadership problem at Pride that needs to be addressed,” Cain said in a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS

See page 22 >>

}

Rick Gerharter

To those who say that even though Manning is gay, what he did was not specifically gay-re lated, Cain has a different perspective. gay-re“The reason I nominated Bradley was because the LGBT community Manning needed to know about him and embrace him,” Cain said.

“Bradley Manning is a gay man who did See page 6 >>

Gregg Shapiro: Body Geographic has an unusual structure.

Barrie Jean Borich: The book is structured as an atlas. Each chapter was made to imitate the form of the map. In the essays I’ve called “maps,” the structure is a main narrative interrupted by ruminative or lyric insets that move in closer or take another view. Other structures include a legend, a palimpsest map, a panorama view map, and a couple of TripTiks, all of these forms mimicking the ways maps reveal and obscure the nature of places. And I’ve included actual maps I found in archives.

How much research was involved in the book?

A great deal. I read books about maps and early-20th century immigration, and the meaning of place and the Columbian Exposition. I spent time in immigration, city history and mining archives. I read oral histories and memoirs from Eastern European immigrants, old country newspapers. I pored through digital map archives, went to drag king shows, interviewed my great aunt and my grandmother. I followed my intuitions, which means I was massively inefficient, but then found things I wouldn’t have known to look for.

I’m not a scholar, but treat research as a discovery process.

We are the same age, part of a “lost generation,” neither Baby Boomers nor Gen X. Your description of our generation in “Alabaster City’s Gleam” describes us as “kids who would come of age just after all the rock stars started dying of overdoses, just before all the gay men started getting sick with a mysterious new disease.”

I have long been aware that we are neither Boomers nor Xers. Another queerness, I suppose? I’m always at once resentful and grateful for all the ways I’ve fallen through the cracks in my queer lifetime. How did

Yes, it’s probably a queer thing. Or a queerish thing!

this form me? I suppose I’ve always known that I could map out the life I wanted to live, that there was no one way to journey. Remember back in high school, standing in line at the Biograph [in Chicago], when the Rocky Horror Show Picture Show phenomenon was still brand-new?

Those are the moments that made our nameless generation. I saw right away, in that line at the Biograph with all those Frankenfurters and Columbias and all that toast, rice and creative self-identifying, how much the nonfictional world begs to be written about.

You write about the unexpected bonus of how you and your husband Linnea’s tastes in “styles of design” were a good match.

“Linnea’s and my collections of items could have been in our parents’ apartments the year we were born.” As someone who hunts and gathers furniture from my childhood, I wondered if you think that’s something exclusive to queer people, or do you think straight folks do it, too?

Hmm, let’s see, who do I know with mid-century collections. Him? Queer. Her? Queer. Him? Queer.

You write about attending a poetry reading by your niece Adria, comparing how different your learning experience was.

“We had not poetrywielding teachers.”

Clearly, those teachers change kids’ lives, as do the queer aunties and uncles who love to bring kids in our worlds closer to what we see as worthy thrills of living. That niece is now a musical theatre major in college, and another of Linnea’s and my nieces graduated from Columbia in Chicago with a degree in photography. We hope the choices we made in our lives help these kids see that it’s possible to pursue that which makes us feel most alive.

You write about your relationship to jazz. Jazz has its fair share of queer artists. Nancy Wilson’s rendition of “Lush Life” was written by Duke Ellington’s collaborator Billy Strayhorn, openly gay at a time when that was unheard of. What do you think about openly queer jazz artists Patricia Barber, Terri Lyne Carrington, Gary Burton and Lea DeLaria?

Patricia Barber may be my single favorite artist of all time. I listen to her constantly. I don’t suppose her queerness is the reason I love her music. Or is it? Her strangeness and the intense and literary focus of her themes seem to me a kind of queerness. But jazz is not your typical queer genre, and it is a stunningly masculinist enterprise. More than once, at a jazz club, Linnea and I have shaken our heads as we realize that we are present for gorgeous art-making where the men on stage outnumber the women in the audience, which makes the big queer genius of someone like Barber all the more magnificent.t

t

Fine Art>>

May 1-7, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Modernism is calling

by Sura Wood

I

t’s not often that a matzo holder ranks as the piece de resistance of a museum exhibition, but the beautiful textile woven with teal and metallic gold threads by Anni Albers, one of the first Bauhaus adherents to emigrate here from Germany, is certainly a standout at Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism. The new exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum includes the work of more than 35 Jewish architects, designers and patrons who had a profound impact on shaping the aesthetics of American modernism. Aspects of their legacy – informality, indoor/ outdoor living, and especially, wellcrafted, affordable industrial design for the masses – are lasting; anyone who has spent time at Ikea or Crate and Barrel will experience déjà vu in the galleries.

Many of these design professionals were American Jews born to immigrant families; others came from Europe in the 1930s, fleeing Nazi persecution and Mussolini’s antiSemitic regime in Italy, or arrived on these shores seeking greater economic opportunities. In a nice touch, a wall projection maps their intersecting networks, and how and where they cross-pollinated.

The far-ranging survey, which covers the 1920s and 30s through the 1960s with an emphasis on the post-war period, brings together vintage furnishings, tableware and an array of ceramics, textiles, posters and photos, while advancing a broader parallel story of Jewish assimilation into American culture.

It asserts that Jews were absorbed

into the design world, where what counted was their talent, not their religious background, and that more than a few preferred not to overtly acknowledge their Jewish heritage.

Though most of these innovators may not be household names, some of their ideas and the everyday objects they crafted certainly were.

Noted industrial designer and native New Yorker Henry Dreyfuss streamlined and improved the feel, look and utility of practical, user-friendly devices, several of which became ubiquitous in American households.

Take the princess telephone, which any self-respecting 1960s teenage girl had on her bedside table or glued to her ear, and the unobtrusive Honeywell thermostat, a compact, circular dial with manual controls that graced the walls of the average home after its introduction in 1953. Polymath Alvin Lustig, a multi-talented, aheadof-the-curve furniture and graphic designer who revamped Arts & Architecture magazine, created early ergonomic chairs that had the properties of abstract sculpture. A black one here, wrapped in dark fabric, is like a surreal, biomorphic form out of Dali, a curvilinear kidney shape that conforms to the body. The lesserknown Alex Steinweiss served as Columbia Records’ first art director in 1939, where he’s credited with introducing eye-grabbing record jackets with bold graphics and color palettes for LP albums, which up until then were sold in plain brown envelopes.

A small selection of the estimated 2,500 covers he designed are on view.

The exhibition, which has a spacious, minimal aesthetic these modernists would’ve loved, also

CJM-SF

Color lithograph for The Man with the Golden Arm (1956) by Saul Bass. Collection of SFMOMA, part of Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism, on view at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

Johnna Arnold

Princess Phone (1959) by Henry Dreyfuss, part of Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism, on view at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

highlights Northern California developer Joseph Eichler, and important conduits such as the Pond Farm artist colony in Guerneville; the progressive art incubator Black Mountain College; the Walker Art Center’s Idea Houses (1941 & 47), which were the first functioning modern homes built by a museum; and NY’s MoMA, whose influential 1938 exhibition Bauhaus 19191928; Modern Art in Your Life promoted modernism and launched the careers of both Jewish and nonJewish practitioners.

Not that the above aren’t interesting areas of investigation, but in a quest for diversity and inclusiveness, the show throws its net wide, sacrificing depth for breadth. Short shrift is given to architecture, and there are only sparse examples of furnishings by key players such as George Nelson. A founder of American modernism, Nelson, a Yale University-educated writer, editor and architect, ran his own independent design studio, as well as serving as Creative Director of the Herman Miller Furniture Company, a post he held for 25 years. Starting in the 1940s, he assembled leading figures in the field like Ray and Charles Eames, Donald Knorr and Isamu Noguchi, and became a dominant force behind the 20th century’s most iconic modernist furniture, from clocks, lamps and benches to storage units, leather swivel chairs and couches. Only three examples of his furnishings are displayed. So where are those conference chairs we’ve all admired on Mad Men? Architect Rudolf Schindler, who led the development of California modernism, is represented by a low-slung, creamy upholstered chair, a boxy geometric number with curved edges and a built-in side table. Schindler and his fellow Austrian, architect Richard Neutra, worked briefly with Frank Lloyd Wright when they came to the U.S. in the 1920s before practicing in L.A. For a spell, these fiercely competitive, visionary men and their families lived together (miraculously) in West Hollywood, a period of harmony that ended in divorce.

Schindler, who designed a beach house for doctor/columnist Philip Lovell, had a falling out with Neutra when the latter scored the commission for the same client’s “Health House” three years later. An embodiment of the International Style, the project marked a turning point in Neutra’s career, as well as the annals of architectural history, and has appeared in films such as L.A. Confidential and Beginners. By the mid1940s, Neutra’s open, light-filled, steel-framed houses were synonymous with the Southern California style epitomized by the Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs (1946). Captured in magical black

CJM-SF

Marshmallow Sofa (1956), metal, upholstery, and paint, by George Nelson & Associates, Irving Harper, Vitra, part of Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism, on view at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

& white photographs taken by Julius Shulman, the boxy glass structure is flanked by a swimming pool, white chaise lounges are lined up on the lawn, an inviting outdoor fireplace sits on the upper story, and moun-

tains in the distance frame a scene that evokes a latter-day Shangri-La. Go to work? You must be kidding.t Through October 6.

STEVENUNDERHILLPHOTOGRAPHY weddings • headshots• portraits

415-370-7152

www.stevenunderhill.com • stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

<< DVD

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 1-7, 2014

Fit to be tied

by Tavo Amador

I

n her long career, Joan Crawford (1906-77) kept re-inventing herself.

She made her film debut in 1925, became a star in 1928, and made her last movie in 1970. When flappers were the rage, she became their personification. After her successful transition from silents to talkies, she memorably portrayed working-class girls who climbed the social ladder – compromising or defending their virtue, depending on the story line. She interspersed those roles with a few musicals and comedies, and sometimes played troubled society women.

Until nearly the end of the 1930s, she rarely had a flop – one notable exception being Rain (1932), in which her riveting Sadie Thompson failed to find an audience. By the end of that decade, however, she joined Fred Astaire, Katharine Hepburn, Mae West, and Marlene Dietrich on the famous “box-office poison” list compiled by the Hollywood Reporter. She recovered temporarily with her first bitch in The Women (1939), Strange Cargo (1940), and A Woman’s Face (1941), before being fired by MGM in 1943. She would triumph at Warner Bros., winning an Oscar for Mildred Pierce (1945), which led to her big-screen embodiment of self-sacrificing mothers or middle-aged career women dealing with unworthy, often dangerous men. By the end of the 1950s, her stardom seemed over, but she had one more comeback left, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

(1962), which also revitalized the career of Bette Davis.

Crawford capitalized on its success by starring in increasingly incongruous “thrillers.” In The Caretakers (1963), she was a rigid head nurse in a mental hospital whose own psychological issues are more severe than most of the patients.

Then, producer/director William Castle moved heaven and earth to

<<

Jeremy Jordan

From page 13

So how do you know the handsome 30-year-old with the killer pipes? In his Tony-nominated starring role as Jack Kelly in Broadway’s Newsies, as Dolly Parton’s rebellious grandson in the film Joyful Noise, as the brooding singer-songwriter Jimmy Collins on TV’s Smash, or all of the above?

This week Jordan premieres his first solo show in San Francisco, performing May 1-4 at Feinstein’s at Hotel Nikko. “The show is a combination of how I got to where I am, the bigger moments of my career, and some of my favorite songs,” he says. “I’m more comfortable going onstage as a character, so I’m incredibly nervous but excited to be coming out there.”

His first Broadway gigs in Rock of Ages and West Side Story in 2009 quickly led to Jordan being cast as Clyde Barrow in the musical Bonnie and Clyde, which premiered in Sarasota, Florida. Before that show arrived on Broadway, he was cast in Newsies, which would make him an overnight star.

As Bonnie and Clyde headed for Broadway, he was soon shuttling between the two roles, rehearsing as the singing bank-robber by day, performing as Newsies’ high-stepping newsboy at night, while maintaining his 1930s wardrobe throughout.

Somewhere in the midst of all this, he starred with Dolly Parton, Queen Latifah and Keke Palmer in Joyful Noise, and was soon snatched up to star on TV’s Smash. So what were the challenges of so much success happening so fast?

“It’s been a blessing,” he says.

“The challenge is, how do you top the next thing and keep riding that

get her in a Strait-jacket (1964), in which she replaced the previously signed Joan Blondell. The script was

by Robert Bloch (Psycho). It has recently been released in DVD. Crawford plays Lucy Harbin, at ages 25 (!) to 45. As a “young” wife and mother, she discovered her husband in bed with his mistress and, suffering from temporary insanity, whacked them to death with an ax.

After 20 years in jail, she’s rehabilitated, and upon release, is welcomed home by her daughter, Carol (Diane Baker). Carol encourages mom to dress more youthfully and stylishly, which Lucy happily does. Lucy soon reveals she has many unresolved mental issues, however. She makes a play for Carol’s much younger fiancé, Michael (a handsome John Anthony Hayes), and at the home of his upperclass parents, behaves irrationally.

Soon afterwards, several people are killed with an ax as the weapon.

Naturally, Lucy is suspected of the crimes and ultimately arrested. Unable to come up with a convincing alibi, she seems destined to return to prison after what will likely be a quick trial. Is Lucy guilty, or is there another explanation? Audiences knew the answer.

Despite a black wig and carefully lighting, Crawford doesn’t remotely suggest a young woman. Nonetheless, she tackles the role with unrestrained relish, chomping up the scenery and demanding sympathy.

It’s a mesmerizing example of overthe-top, high-camp acting, and an indication of how her own judgment was failing. Director Castle was in awe of her, and consequently failed her miserably. Baker, whom Crawford had befriended when filming 1959’s The Best of Everything – a picture the veteran star stole from the younger actresses – retains her dignity in a thankless part. Lief Erickon, Rochelle Hudson, George Kennedy, and in an untrain? The hardest part is saying no to things that I would’ve said yes to before. The challenge is also finding non-musical work, but I’ll ride that musical train for as long as I can.”

Surprisingly, the go-to guy for musical theatre came to that party rather late. A native of Corpus Christi, Texas, he was primarily a choir kid. “I wasn’t much into musical theatre until college,” he says.

“I was musically influenced by alternative singer-songwriters. As an actor I admired Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, who played cool, charming characters with bite to them. They never seemed to sell out.”

But Jordan especially loved one musical film that he owned on VHS. “As a kid I loved the movie Newsies.

I connected with that character, so creating the role on Broadway fulfilled an inner-child dream. Getting to sing ‘Santa Fe’ as the Act I finale on Broadway was always a thrilling moment.”

But the young Texan had no problem conjuring Jack Kelly’s Noo Yawk accent. “You know when you’re a kid and you have an acting voice? Mine was always a New York accent,” he says. “I’d never been to New York, but that street-urchin voice came naturally to me. I could turn it on like a faucet – and it was from Newsies!”

Jordan’s native drawl came in handy while working on Joyful Noise with Dolly Parton. “She is the sweetest, kindest woman you’ll ever meet,” he says. “When she’s in the room you can feel her presence; any negative energy gets sucked out of the room.”

He was surprised by the polarized opinions that TV fans and critics had about Smash. “On the set, it was wonderful. We had a blast, and

t

billed bit, Lee Majors round out the cast and do what they can, acting as though the proceedings make sense – no small challenge.

In true star style, Crawford, still a director of Pepsi-Cola, commandeered the corporate jet to fly across the country, promoting the movie with personal appearances at theatres. As a result, it made a small profit.

Later that year, she withdrew from a re-teaming with Davis in Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, but kept working in films and television until 1972. Her last movie was the lamentable Trog, in which she played a scientist protecting the missing link between humans and apes. Prior to that, however, she had made history once more, this time on the small screen. She starred in Eyes, part of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery (1969), which was directed by the young Steven Spielberg – his first professional assignment.

She spent the last years of her life as a recluse, but her death was frontpage news in almost every American and Western European newspaper.

Her reputation survived both those post-Baby Jane vehicles and her eldest adopted daughter Christina’s vicious, largely discredited memoirs, Mommie Dearest. When the American Film Institute announced its 25 greatest female legends of the 20th century, Crawford finished 10th.t everyone got along. But I’d never experienced such a dichotomous reaction,” he says of the now-cancelled show that some loved, some hated, and some loved to hate. “Everyone had ideas of what they thought it should be. There’d be glimpses of it, then the next scene would go in a totally other direction. There were so many people involved, and it passed through so many hands that no one could agree on the direction.”

Jordan recently wrapped the film The Last Five Years, based on the cult hit musical by composer Jason Robert Brown. Written and directed

by Richard LaGravenese, it’s a deconstructed love story about a novelist and an actress, in which Jordan stars with Up in the Air and Pitch Perfect’s Anna Kendrick.

“It’s really remarkable and incredibly different as a film,” he says.

“It’s shot in an indie-film kind of way, it’s told 95% through song, the timelines intersect, and it’s a strange collage of the roller coaster of relationships. It’s both complex and relatable.”

He has high praise for Kendrick, his chart-topping, Oscar-nominated co-star who’ll soon be seen as Cinderella in Disney’s Into the Woods. “She’s great fun, she can drink me under the table, and she can do no wrong – literally.”

Jeremy Jordan’s staggering success in the last five years makes one eagerly wonder what the next five years will bring.t Jeremy Jordan plays Feinstein’s at Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St., SF, May 1-2 at 8 p.m., May 3-4 at 7 p.m. Tickets: $45-$60: www. ticketweb.com/snl/VenueListings. action?venueId=251414 or call (866) 663-1063. www.jeremy-jordan.com

t <<

Film>>

May 1-7, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

SFIFF, week 2

From page 13

Salvation Army Abdellah Taia embeds us inside an extended Moroccan clan as a shy, queer Arab boy (Taia’s younger self) plots to escape the tyranny of family and the benevolent but still painful exploitation of foreign sex tourists. (Kabuki, 5/2, 6; BAM/PFA, 5/4) Eastern Boys Robin Campillo serves up a slow-simmering, allmale erotic thriller that kicks off in Paris’ busiest train station, the Gare du Nord, as Daniel (Olivier Rabourdin), a hunky 50ish businessman, searches for a young hustler among the gaggle of rent boys loitering about. Striking what he believes is a decent bargain with a comely lad, Marek (Kirill Emelyanov), Daniel gives the kid the address to his suburban high-rise pad. At the appointed hour, the bell rings, Daniel answers, and the phrase “He got more than he bargained for” has never rung so true. Into the flat pours a Les Miserables-worthy army of boy hustlers, led by a rascal nicknamed “Boss” (Danill Vorobyev). First they trash the joint and terrorize Daniel, then they proceed to party down.

Eventually Marek shows up, allows Daniel to penetrate him, collects his 50 Euros, and begins an Arabian Nights-worthy succession of erotic encounters that, strangely enough, turn into a complex relationship, somewhere between lover and adopted son. Campillo has the boy make a soulful confession inside a French mall. Marek is actually a Ukrainian refugee named Rouslan who suffers bad-dad ties with the Boss. How this all sorts itself out is a nail-biting treat. Young Emelyanov, who bears a resemblance to Canadian hottie star Gregory Smith, is one of French cinema’s best steal-yourheart wounded kids since the young waif in Patrice Chereau’s late-80s queer classic L’Homme Blesse (The Wounded Man). (Kabuki, 5/2; New People, 5/4) Harmony Lessons Kazakhstan’s Emir Baigazin stages a chilling if aesthetically compelling coup among the ranks of a prep-school student body cowed by a gangster in their midst. The physical beauty of these boys, whose motives and methods would frighten even Lady Macbeth, is complemented by Baigazin’s style, a cinema of austere understatement. These adolescent schemers will remind you of the wicked-boy vigilantes in Keith Gordon’s audacious classic The Chocolate War, or Ezra Miller’s schoolboy paralyzed by envy and ennui in the dark corridors of Antonio Campos’ Afterschool. (Kabuki, 5/4, 5) Stop the Pounding Heart Roberto Minervini spends 100 minutes observing the lives of a rural East Texas female goat farmer and the handsome young rodeo bullrider she slyly covets. Sara and Col-

Courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society

A scene from Robin Campillo’s Eastern Boys, playing the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival.

Courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society

A scene from Emir Baigazin’s Harmony Lessons, playing the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival.

by are as discreet around each other as if they were each other’s chaperones rather than possible life partners, in a part of the country where folks can still really mean “Til death do us part.” The poetic title derives from advice whispered in Sara’s ear by a loving mom. (Kabuki, 5/4; New People, 5/6) Freedom Summer Stanley Nelson offers a gripping account of the season that would forever alter the bastion of Jim Crow. As Phil Ochs would sing, “Here’s to the state of Mississippi.” As a 20-year-old college student, I was both envious of and intimidated by the quiet audacity of hundreds of my peers braving the clubs of redneck sheriffs and worse; the worse – hauntingly recalled here – was a most shameful day in modern American history when the bodies of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner

were dug from muddy graves. Nelson provides a chorus of voices, white and black, achingly young then, older and wiser now, but still proud of their great moment. We witness the courage of ordinary African Americans who dared shelter “outside agitators,” along with the historic moment when Fannie Lou Hamer defied a president by seeking to oust a lily-white Mississippi delegation to the Atlantic City “coronation” of President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Nelson’s crowning achievement is his LBJ, here displaying the cunning, paranoia and ruthless opportunism that would inspire Barbara Garson’s withering 1967 satire MacBird. (Kabuki, 5/3, 7) The Last Weekend For as long as they can remember, the Green family – Mama, Poppa, two sons, one gay, one lost – have been spending their summers at a lovely if cluttered Lake Tahoe getaway house. Mama

Courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society

Patricia Clarkson is the matriarch of a clan in a scene from Tom Dolby and Tom Williams’ Last Weekend, playing the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival.

Celia (a take-no-prisoners diva turn from Patricia Clarkson) is meaning for this Labor Day weekend to be the end of it all, for reasons even she doesn’t fully understand. Gay son Theo (Zachary Booth) has brought a lovely new friend, Luke (Devon Graye), to the party, while straight

bro Roger (Joseph Cross) is taking advantage of the house’s no-WiFi zone to shield Poppa (Chris Mulkey) from his latest workplace meltdown – fired for losing millions pushing the wrong button in a stock trade.

Celia keeps adding to her knickknacks, Luke frets that Theo can’t see his soul, and handyman Hector (Julio Oscar Mechoso) mixes water and electricity dockside, prompting a hospital visit. It isn’t O’Neill’s Tyrone clan, but directors Tom Dolby and Tom Williams provide an entertaining Left Coast version of a Long Island Gold Coast lifestyle. (Kabuki, 5/2; New People, 5/5) Palo Alto Gia Coppola undertakes her maiden directorial voyage with a worthy narrative mash-up of three stories from Renaissance dude James Franco’s collection. Slyly stealing the show is Val Kilmer’s boy Jack, whose teen makes some quick course adjustments to avoid the cliff his best pal is hurtling towards. A rare chance to see a top-flight ensemble deliver a Bay Area-sited OC. (Kabuki, 5/3) Night Moves Jesse Eisenberg with stylish facial hair steals the acting thunder in indie auteur Kelly Reichardt’s environmental thriller, where activist youth scheme to take down an Oregon dam. (Kabuki, 5/7, 8) The Lady Eve (1941) His dad was a steel tycoon, his mom a flighty bohemian sidekick to artiste Isadora Duncan, so Preston Sturges came honestly to his satiric insights on the dangers of common folk mingling with the 1%. The pratfall-laced shipboard romance that ensues between a young brewery heir/snake specialist (Henry Fonda) and a confidence trickster played to the nines

by Barbara Stanwyck in her prime is still fresh and naughty fun. Sturges believed there was a special gateway to the funny bone produced by a merger of sophisticated dialogue and physical gags. “I had my fingers crossed when [Fonda] went over the sofa. I held my left ear when he tore down the curtains, and I held everything when the roast beef hit him. But audiences surrendered to the fun, and the picture made a lot of money.” This classic comedy is presented by critic David Thomson.

(Kabuki, 5/4)t

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PERSONALS Vol. 44 • No. 18 • May 1-7, 2014

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Keeping Trax BARchive Extra: an excerpt from ‘For My Brothers’

by Mark Abramson

Background: A party at Trax in the early 1990s. Inset: Mark Abramson at the bar of Trax.

courtesy Mark Abramson

courtesy Mark Ab ramson

W

hen I lost my job at 469 Castro Street, I was only out of work for six days. My friend Nelson, who had become the manager at Headquarters, found me my next job. He put in a call to Ken Smith at Trax on Haight Street. Kenny said they were about to let one of their bartenders go and he would fit me into the schedule.

My lover Kelly and I took the #33 Ashbury bus over the hill to Trax a couple of days before I was scheduled to start. It was early afternoon, and the bar was fairly quiet. We each ordered a Screwdriver and pretended we were tourists. I just wanted to get a feel for the place without letting on that I would soon be coming to work there. The bartender on duty was a stranger to me and, for all I knew, he might be the person I was replacing. If so, I felt sorry for him. I knew all too well how it felt to get canned from a job.

See page 2 >>

Georg Lester

Kink, Quiche, Community Wicked Grounds welcomes Percolatin’ ‘Pervs’

by Michael Flanagan

I Psychokitty Ryan at Wicked Grounds.

t’s the kind of café your mother would love – especially if she is sex-positive and a little kinky. Wicked Grounds is nearly a unique institution. There was one other kink cafe, Coffee Cake and Kink, in London, but it no longer exists. So as well as being a warm and comfortable space, Wicked Grounds is a testament to the kind of community which exists in San Francisco, and has existed since September, 2009 when they opened.

And though there was a closing scare in their past, the Wicked Grounds story tells the tale of how communitybuilding happens and how it can pull together.

See page 3 >>

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 1-7, 2014

<<

Keeping Trax

From page 1

get served at Francine’s, which was the only lesbian bar in the Castro.

I already knew Ken Smith, coowner of Trax, also known as “Kenneth Anne” from his performances as one of the “big girls” in a couple of the Men Behind Bars shows. His business partner, Bob Douglas,

I hadn’t been inside Trax in years, but it had been a gay bar for as long as I could remember. I rarely went to the Haight, especially since I lived in the Castro where so many bars were within easy walking distance.

In the 1970s, Trax was a gay bar called The Question Mark. It was one of many gay places on that side of the hill which included Gus’ Pub, The Deluxe, The Theater Club, The I Beam, Bones, Bradley’s Corner, and Maud’s.

Maud’s was also where Jim Cvitanich and I had gone to hear the Pussies sing for the first time. We had asked them right away to be in our next Men Behind Bars show. Knowing so many lesbian bartenders was great. They were always nice to me and poured good drinks at Maud’s and also at Amelia’s on Valencia Street, which was another bar e of owned by Rikki Streicher. d Al Parker at on Rita Rockett an ies rt pa ay hd rt bi On the other hand, men couldn’t Mark Abramson’s

EDITOR Jim Provenzano

became a good friend of mine too.

He was great fun to go drinking with, and I soon discovered that Bob, like Kenny, loved to throw on a dress, a wig, and a pair of high heels now and then. Kenny and Bob were retired from banking by the time they bought Trax. Running the bar was something for them to do in their elder years.

I liked working at Trax, even though most days the money wasn’t as good as on Castro Street. The crowd was a lot more mixed, too,

of Life.”

My first year working at Trax, we moved my birthday party with Rita Rockett and Al Parker from the Eagle to Haight Street. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon in June of 1992, and it would turn

with him that day, another porn star, but not one whose name I remember. He was handsome, even with his clothes on. He pulled me aside and said, “Drew is getting really tired. He’s pretty sick, you know. How long do you need him to stay here?”

“Until we have Gail sing ‘Happy Birthday’ and cut and serve the cake. Drew always serves the cake.”

“Well, can you move that up?”

I told him I thought we could, but first I went looking for Drew. I had lost track of him again. This time I found him standing out in front of the bar signing autographs on Haight Street, but not for any of the people who had come to our birthday party. These were just a bunch of gay tourists who happened to be walking by on a Sunday afternoon and recognized Al Parker.

t

Mark Abramson’s memoir, For My Brothers

son courtesy Mark Abram

out to be Drew’s (Al Parker’s real name) last birthday.

I remember that day well.

Gail Wilson performed with The Fabulous Velcros and the place was mobbed with people.

Trax had a back door behind the office that led outside to a spectacular garden. The owner of the building had it beautifully landscaped, complete with decking and a koi pond. He was a gay guy

DESIGNERS Jay Cribas, Max Leger courtesy Mark Abram son

ADVERTISING SALES Scott Wazlowski 415-359-2612

Pat Montclair an d Gail Wilson at Trax.

CONTRIBUTORS Ray Aguilera, Race Bannon, Matt Baume, Heather Cassell, Coy Ellison, Michael Flanagan, Dr. Jack Fritscher, Peter Hernandez, John F. Karr, T. Scott King, Sal Meza, David Elijah-Nahmod, Adam Sandel, Donna Sachet, Jim Stewart, Ronn Vigh, Cornelius Washington

I asked Drew how he was feeling and told him what the redhead had told me.

Drew laughed and said he was fine.

“Don’t change anything on my account. He’s just bored and wants to leave because he doesn’t know anyone. He can leave. I’m staying.”

I might have moved the cakecutting up a bit, but not much. I was probably tired too, but we were raising lots of money for Rita’s brunches at the AIDS ward.t

PHOTOGRAPHY Biron, Wayne Bund, Marques Daniels, Don Eckert, Lydia Gonzales, Rick Gerharter, Jose Guzman-Colon, Georg Lester, Dan Lloyd, Jim Provenzano, Rich Stadtmiller, Monty Suwannukul, Steven Underhill

Mark Abramson reads from For My Brothers on Thursday, May 8, 7:30pm at Books Inc., 2275 Market St. www.booksinc.net

BARtab is published by BAR Media, Inc. PUBLISHER/PRESIDENT Michael M. Yamashita CHAIRMAN Thomas E. Horn VP AND CFO Patrick G. Brown SECRETARY Todd A. Vogt BAR Media, Inc. 225 Bush Street, Suite 1700 San Francisco, CA 94104 (415) 861-5019 www.BARtabSF.com NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media 212.242.6863 LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad Member National Gay Newspaper Guild Copyright © 2014, Bay Area Reporter, a division of BAR Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

courtesy Mark Abramson

Rita Rockett looks on as Al Parker cuts Mark Abramson’s birthday cake.

but I enjoyed most of the regulars and discovered that I could make friends with straight men and women just as easily as gay ones, as long as they knew they were in a gay bar. Tourists sometimes got a little freaked out when they noticed two men kissing. I remember one guy asked me, “Are we in the wrong bar?” I answered by telling him everyone was welcome at Trax, unless being around gay people bothered him. I said if that was the case, he and his girlfriend weren’t in the wrong bar, they were in the wrong city.

Kenny loved to decorate and throw parties at the bar for holidays as well as events like the Super Bowl, the Oscars and any other excuse to have a bash. Trax held its share of funerals, too, or as people usually called them, “Celebrations

who lived upstairs. His deceased parents had owned the bar when it was called The Question Mark.

At one point in the party that afternoon, I realized I hadn’t seen Kelly in a while.

The crowd was thick, and people near the stage were drunkenly trying to dance.

It took me a while to make my way to the back and then out to the garden, and there I found Kelly smoking a pipe with Drew. They offered me a hit, but I knew better. I’d spent many nights out with Drew, and I knew how strong his hash was. I thought I’d better remain coherent, especially since I felt responsible for the party.

Drew had a redheaded friend

courtesy Mark Abramson

d by his then-partner

hugge Mark Abramson being

Robert Neal Kelly.

t <<

Read more online at www.ebar.com

May 1-7, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Wicked Grounds

such a dedicated following. the month. With the wide variety of The ‘Godless Perverts Social activities and interests that are eviClub’ provides a space for the LGBT, dent on the calendar, it’s easy to see queer, kinky, poly, trans (and people why Mir considers this space a “oneThe café is a bit of a chimera – of all orientations, genders or kinks stop shop for kink, community and one part art gallery, one part educa– or lack thereof) for atheists to soeducation.” Some groups, such as tional institution, one part commucialize every third Tuesday of the Rope Bite, got their start at Wicked nity space and one part bookstore month. There is a pre-Bondage-aGrounds. coffee shop. As an institution which Go-Go munch for those who want An equally interesting expresserves so many functions, it’s a visuto get together before going around sion of community is the use of the corner to Bondage the space as a gallery. Shows change A Go-Go (a munch, as about every three months. Curdefined by Wikipedia, rently, a group show titled Dirty is a casual social gatherWorks includes 50 works by six Bay ing for people involved Area artists, including an amazor interested in BDSM). ing oil “Dream of the Fisherman’s And evenings like Wife,” which will draw your eye as Rope Bite and the you enter the café. Past exhibitions SF Citadel’s Newbie have featured such well-known kink Munch provide an easy artists as the painter of large works way for people who Nancy Peach. Exhibitions typically are finding their way feature a reception night, so if you courtesy SeriousMaleBondage.com in kink to enter the see something you like on the walls, community. Rope Bite make sure and ask if they have had a A kinky tea at Wicked Grounds. describes itself as ‘San reception. Mir assured me that they Francisco’s premier are looking to provide new artists rope bondage social’ where ‘all genaccess to the community, so this is ally busy and interesting place. ders and orientations are enthusiasyet another way the café engages in Mir (Rebeccalyn ‘Mir’ Bilodeau), tically welcomed’ and happens every community-building. one of the co-owners, describes first Wednesday from 7-9pm. The One of the many things that are the space as “a homey comfortable space for the kink community.”

When we were discussing the concept, I asked Mir if she remembered Artemis Café on Valencia Street.

Not only did she, but it’s the kind of community space she looks to for inspiration in what she hopes to create with Wicked Grounds.

Mir and her partner Mo are the owners and operators of Spiky Jane’s Coffee – a business whose motto is “Coffee to fuel the queer revolution.” They’ve joined forces with one of the founders of Wicked Grounds, Ryan “Psychokitty” Galiotto, who’s been there since the beginning, and was there when it looked like Wicked Grounds might have to close in 2011 due to financial problems. But between the community rallying and raising funds to keep the café open, and Spiky Jane’s Coffee joining forces with Wicked Grounds, the café was saved. That rallying of The eclectic décor at Wicked Grounds. the community tells much of what you need to know about this spot – it’s a home to many and they want SF Citadel Newbie Munch provides of interest about Wicked Grounds is it to be around for many years to a space for people to learn about the the crowd that they draw. Although come.

San Francisco BDSM club. (as with any café) there is an ebb and A quick look at the calendar for For those interested in age play, flow in how busy it is, I have always Wicked Grounds gives you a good there is the SF Littles Munch which been struck by how lively a place it is idea of the communities that are happens every fourth Wednesday of whenever I stop by. It’s well known served and why they have created internationally. While I was there, I heard accents from both down under and Europe. As well as being the crossroads of many communities within San Francisco, it has the ability to draw people from out of town and off the continent as well.

Mir told me that it’s not uncommon to have international tourists tell them that part of what drew them to visit San Francisco was to visit the kink café – it is the first stop for many the kink tourist.

Aside from the normal foodies that you would expect here, I also saw card players (and there are a variety of board games available as well). The one striking thing for me was that (as opposed to many spots in San Francisco now), I did not walk in to find a sea of faces staring into computers, though admittedly there were a few doing that as well. This may, in part, be due to the nature of the relationships that develop there. Mir mentioned that she thinks of that it is a great first date spot, and that it provides a safe spot for people negotiating BDSM relationships, in that it is both welcoming, informative and supportive.

And there is something of the homespun feel that the place has with its assortment of furniture that reminds me of a San Francisco little seen these days. I found that it reminded me of the sort of community that existed in places like the Red Vic Theater from the halcyon days of the Haight. Of course the Red Vic didn’t have a cage for you to stow your slave in, but that is part of the Georg Lester unique charm that Wicked Grounds Some of the kink items on sale at Wicked Grounds. provides. It truly has that homey From page 1

Michael Flanagan

Mir (left) and Ryan at their espresso machine.

Pagan festival and one part trunk show, where you can find unique hand-crafted toys and goods, including latex design and custommade fezs from Fezzorama (who are close enough to Wicked Grounds that they made a special fez for Psychokitty Ryan). Events also include readings, such as Sam Rosenthal (of Black Tape for a Blue Girl and Projekt Records) reading from his erotic novel Rye. And the sense of fun extends to the collaborations they have been involved in as well: Kink.com has used the café as a set for four videos. It’s a ‘go-to’ spot for many after Up Your Alley, and they actually are in the fairgrounds for the Folsom Street Fair.

Wicked Grounds is a hive of activity and fun, but it is much more than that. It’s San Francisco’s own kinky DIY pathfinder, showing us one way forward in a time when our community is under duress. And the fabulous thing about them is that you can get inspiration while having a fabulous nosh, great coffee and getting your kink on. t

vibe, or as Mir calls it a “home for hanging out.”

It’s fortunate that the café is not only about hanging out – it has a pretty wonderful menu. My favorite was the quiche with chicken in it, served with a side salad. And as the denizens are fairly obsessed with coffee, you do not get a drink which has been sitting around waiting for you.

They make fresh French press coffee by the cup, as well as espresso drinks. There are vegan and glutenfree items available as well. But by far the most popular item is their milkshakes (Mir assures me “the littles love them”). Think of their food style as ‘café comfort food’ with a wide variety of sandwiches, salads and a good selection of sweets as well.

What is outstanding regarding Wicked Grounds is the sense of fun and play which inspires their work and Georg Lester permeates all they do.

This extends into events like the Summer Fair that happens on the first Saturday of Summer, which is June 21 this year. The fair is one part

Wicked Grounds is at 289 8th Street at Folsom. Hours are 3-10pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; 3-11pm Wednesday, and 11am-10pm Saturday and Sunday.

(415) 503-0405. www.wickedgrounds.com

Here we grow again!

Multimedia Sales Associate The Bay Area Reporter, America’s longest continuouslypublished and highest circulation LGBT newspaper, is looking for a Multimedia Sales Executive.

If you are looking for a fast-paced environment with a growing company, that opportunity is here. Your focus will be managing existing and establishing new partnerships with local retailers, clubs, restaurants, national brands and ad agencies to create sales strategies and find new business opportunities in print, digital and mobile advertising and marketing initiatives.

The earning potential for the right candidate is unlimited, with a competitive base salary and lucrative incentive plan.

BAR Media, Inc. offers a comprehensive benefit package that includes Medical, Dental and matching 401(k).

Please e-mail us your resume and cover letter at advertising@ebar.com, telling us why you would be great on the Bay Area Reporter’s team. Only qualified candidates will be contacted.

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second section 57

Boston, P-town travel

40th anniv., readers' poll

Considering Balenciaga

The

www.ebar.com

Serving the gay, lesbian,

REPORT CITES HEALTH GAPS

Traditionally, IOM committees are asked to identify research gaps and priorities within a field. “But that paradigm does not fit for this area,” chair Dr. Robert Graham said at the March 31 news conference releasing the report.

See page 24 >>

Our new look

The Bay Area Reporter decided to update its look now that we’re 40.

So we’ve made some slight design changes in both sections of the paper, with new fonts, and in the case of the Arts and Culture section, a new name.

Most significantly, our website has been updated to allow for video with stories, and readers can now comment directly on our online content if they are friends on Facebook.▼

communities since 1971

Vol. 41 • No. 14 • April 7-13,

The 2011

by Seth Hemmelgarn

F

A

report released last week detailed the need for more federal research and data collection on the health of LGBT people.

“Lesbian, Bob Roehr gay, bisexual, Dr. Robert Graham and transgender individuals experience unique health disparities.

Although the acronym LGBT is used as an umbrella term, and the health needs of this community are often grouped together, each of these letters represents a distinct population with its own health concerns,” stated the summary of the report, written by the prestigious Institute of Medicine.

“Furthermore, among lesbians, gay men, bisexual men and women, and transgender people, there are subpopulations on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic based status, geographic location, age, and other factors,” the report continued.

While that summary statement is not news to anyone familiar with the LGBT community, the fact that it was made in the IOM report, which was commissioned by the National Institutes of Health, adds new meaning and credibility to shaping health policy, which that heretofore had been lacking.

bisexual, and transgender

Community looks back at 40 years of the B.A.R.

by Bob Roehr

Founding publisher Bob Ross

or 40 years now, the Bay Area Reporter has informed, entertained, and frequently miffed people in San Francisco and beyond.

The paper started when Bob Ross – chef, Tavern Guild president, and bar culture insider – launched it with business partner Paul Bentley. The first issue was dated April 1, 1971 but hit the streets on April 2, Ross’s 37th birthday. Ross pasted up all the pages by hand, copied them, and delivered them to local bars.

In the beginning, nobody took the paper too seriously.

by Seth Hemmelgarn

he past year has seen several setbacks in San Jose’s LGBT community, even as data from the 2010 census recently revealed that the South Bay berg is now the 10th largest city in the country.

Recent events, however, have made it seem that for a city with almost 1 million people, there’s not much strength in the gay community there.

Last month, the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center canceled its 30th anniversary party, which had been planned for March 26. Only about 40 tickets had been sold.

Last November, the Silicon Valley AIDS Leadership Center, which had organized the annual Walk for AIDS, announced its closure.

And about three months before that, in August, the Gay Pride Celebration Committee of San Jose Inc. opted not to hold a parade.

Of course, problems at LGBT organizations aren’t unique to San Jose. Several San Francisco agencies have been struggling financially. And people with Pride and the DeFrank center indicate they’re all right.

“We have a vibrant community, and when we can engage them, I think that they’re there,” said Ray Mueller, who joined San Jose Pride’s board earlier this year.

One example is last Thursday’s LGBT night with the San Jose Sharks hockey team. Tickets sold out in 10 days.

Serving the gay, lesbian,

bisexual, and transgender

City to embrace Pride

communities since 1971

Vol. 43 • No. 26 • June 27-July

“To be honest, it was sort of a silly publication,” said Jones, who now works with the Courage Campaign. “Most of the other young people didn’t really have much it. It was basically just announcementsuse for about whatever specials were going on at whatever bar.”

The front covers of many early 1970s issues were dedicated to the Imperial Court’s See page 23 >>

Rick Gerharter Members of the Kaiser Permanente contingent enjoyed the sun and music as they headed down Market Street at last year’s Pride parade.

t’s been a rough year for organizers of the 43rd annual San Francisco LGBT Pride parade and celebration, but Pride chief Earl Plante still sounds enthusiastic about this year’s theme, “Embrace, Encourage, Empower.”

Plante, CEO of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, said that to him, the theme means, “embracing all aspects of our community” and “diversity at all levels.” It also invokes “empowering the broader global LGBT movement.”

“San Francisco Pride is a thought leader ... it has been since its inception,” Plante said.

This year’s Pride festivities begin Saturday with the festival in Civic Center, from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, the celebration in Civic Center runs from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The parade kicks off at 10:30 a.m. at Market and Beale streets and ends at Market and Eighth streets. The Pride festival is free, but a donation of $5 is suggested.

There will be jubilation in the streets as well, following Wednesday’s historic victories at the U.S. Supreme Court.

See page 22 >>

Phyllis Lyon is escorted down the Rotunda stairs in San Francisco City Hall by Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, left, and Mayor Ed Lee.

Court victories!

Rick Gerharter

by Matthew S. Bajko and Lisa

I

Keen

n a stunning double victory, the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday issued decisions that strike down both a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8, California’s same-sex marriage ban.

The DOMA decision, a 5-4 split, was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy and joined by

by Cynthia Laird

G

Mueller said the event will generate about $1,000 for this year’s Pride, which is August 2021. A block of about 300 tickets, ranging from $36 to $73, were reserved for the hockey night.

“I think the Sharks event proves people out there to go to something there are that isn’t the usual ‘Let’s go to a gay bar and have a fundraiser,’” said Mueller.

}

Center official appears

the four liberal justices of the court. It strikes DOMA as unconstitutional because it the guarantees of equal protection violates and due process.

The DOMA dissent, based largely on matmat ters of standing, was led by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by the court’s three other conservatives.

Activists to honor Mannin g at SF

The Pro-Latino contingent marched in the 2008 San Jose Pride Parade; officials are not yet sure if there will be a Pride Parade this year, although the festival is scheduled for August.

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS

3, 2013

by Seth Hemmelgarn

I

The

’s 2nd Annual Reader’s Choice Awards

Cleve Jones, who said he had an “up and down” relationship with Ross and who was a close friend of slain gay icon Harvey Milk, started reading the paper after his arrival to San Francisco in 1972.

Despite setbacks, LGBT scene in San Jose is ‘vibrant ’

T

www.ebar.com

ay Army private Bradley Manning was stripped of his grand marshal status and is 3,000 miles away in Maryland at his court-martial but supporters will honor him in Sunday’s San Francisco LGBT Pride parade anyway.

The Bradley Manning Support Network contingent, which has marched in San Francisco Pride parades for the last two years, is expected to be teeming with activists, probably a couple politicians, and supporters of the WikiLeaks whistle-blower.

In a statement released this week, Manning’s local supporters said in essence that they didn’t care that the San Francisco Pride board refused to honor him – Manning will be their grand marshal.

Manning, 25, is accused of leaking some 700,000 classified government documents to WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website. He has confessed to some of the charges against him, but is being court-martialed on other charges.

The most serious, aiding the enemy, could send him to prison for life.

After initially naming Manning as a grand marshal in late April, the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee board reversed itself two days later. Initially Pride board President Lisa Williams, in a statement, said that it was a “mistake” to name Manning a grand marshal. Later, the board came out with a sec-

Rick Gerharter

hopeful

The DeFrank center has been hobbled by financial and leadership problems in recent years and currently has no full-time executive director. However, Chris Flood, the DeFrank’s board president, indicated that the center’s doing better than it might appear.

He was at a See page 22 >>

}

Photo: Rick Gerharter

parade

The Free Bradley Manning contingent, shown here in last year’s parade, is expected to be larger on Sunday. ond statement that said Manning couldn’t be considered for a community grand marshal slot because he is not local.

After a contentious community meeting May 31, the Pride board declined to recognize Manning in any way for the Pride celebration.

Joey Cain, a former Pride Committee board president and a former parade grand marshal,

was the person who nominated Manning for the honor. He has been by turns, angry, hurt, and disappointed in how the controversy has played out, and the lack of communication and transparency from Pride officials.

“There’s a major leadership problem at Pride that needs to be addressed,” Cain said in a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS

See page 22 >>

}

Rick Gerharter

To those who say that even though Manning is gay, what he did was not specifically gay-re lated, Cain has a different perspective. gay-re“The reason I nominated Bradley was because the LGBT community Manning needed to know about him and embrace him,” Cain said.

“Bradley Manning is a gay man who did See page 6 >>

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 1-7, 2014

t

Shooting Stars Extra photos by Steven Underhill

T

heatre Rhinoceros held a fundraiser at The Cinch last week with the publishers of GayPocket San Francisco. Included among the local celebrities were recent cover model Steven Satryicon, who’s also a performer in the Thrillpeddlers hit revival Pearls Over Shanghai. A hunky shirts-off contest to crown the 2014 cover model for the next issue ofGayPocket lured a few handsome gents into doffing their tops.

Visit The Cinch at 1723 Polk St. 776-4162.

Check out GayPocket at www.gaypocketusa.com and Theatre Rhinoceros at www. therhino.org. See more event photo albums on BARtab’s Facebook page, www. facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife and on www.StevenUnderhill.com. See this and other issues in full page-view format at www.issuu.com/bayareareporter

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May 1-7, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Trevor Sigler The DJ’s Got New Grooves

B

oise-born Trevor Sigler has made a name for himself as a Bay Area DJ in just a few short years.

As one fourth of the quartet Rocket Collective (which included Bay Area Reporter Bestie-voted DJ Brian Maier), Sigler has spun at numerous local and regional events.

Now, with Two Dudes in Love’s David Sternesky and Mat Do Santos (the other half of Rocket Collective), Sigler’s first album is out, full of house grooves and electro atmospheric audio. As Sigler was in Los Angeles for a DJ gig, we did an email Q&A to discuss his music.

Can you share a little background about your music interests and what led you to become a DJ? I grew up listening to classic rock, oldies, and country, but discovered electronic music through Ratatat’s debut album. I wanted to learn how those unfamiliar sounds were made. So at 19, I moved to San Francisco to attend the Art Institute of California. Shortly after moving, I met my partner Rene.

He and I just celebrated five years together. In 2012, I graduated with my Bachelor of Science degree in Audio Production with a focus on live sound. Since then, I’ve been focused on building my career as a producer, DJ, and audio engineer.

I’m currently available for audio work!

What first got you into DJing?

Before I started DJing, I focused on writing and producing original songs. My interest in production led me to DJing as a new way to express myself and experiment with combining other producers’ sounds. Once I started mixing songs together, I honed my skills on a DJ rampage that lasted several months. Now my DJing and my original productions influence and complement each other.

When I’m making new sounds for my original productions, it’s about exploring the possibilities of sound design and searching for something new and innovative.

Once I’ve created several interesting sounds, I switch modes from sound designer to songwriter, and I experiment with combining the sounds in a catchy, musical way.

Tell readers a little bit about your new CD; the sounds share different styles of House.

On this album, I drew inspiration from some of my favorite producers like Will Saul and Maya Jane Coles. If you know their music and mine, you might be able to figure out which of my songs were written in homage.

Many of the individual sounds used in my songs are made from field recordings. I walked the streets of Civic Center with a handheld recording device, banging on different parts of the urban landscape to see what they sound like. My album literally has the sounds of San Francisco baked into it.

That’s pretty neat! Do you imagine listeners dancing around their homes, or do you imagine them doing other things?

I hope the album inspires people to do far more than just one thing, but the thought of people dancing to my album in their homes gives me the most joy.

What are the first and last elements you add or subtract in a song or mix? Do mixes get too busy and you strip them down, or add more?

I believe less is more. I try not to add too many different elements at first. Each sound in a song or a mix needs to have its own space to breathe. You don’t want sounds competing for real estate in the same frequency range. If something seems too busy, I strip it down to its essential elements.

You’re working with David and What are your favorite non-San Mat, your colleagues from Rocket Francisco gigs?

Collective, who’ve also been makSQURRRL LA is always a highing original music. Have you guys light! I’ve also had lots of fun both been collaborating since Rocket times I played in Vancouver. Last ended?

Yes; not long after Rocket ended, David, Mathew, and I first considered starting our own house and techno record label. We also DJed together at various parties. David and I had a monthly residency at Lookout’s former Friday night party, Joe. After working on original productions and signing new artists, we decided we had enough material to launch our record label, Friends With Benefits.

Friends With Benefits Records is a creative partnership between the three of us (www.facebook. com/fwbrecords). Our Trevor Sigler’s new album goal is to release great music by ourselves and other innovative house and techno summer I played Mark Louque’s producers, with a special focus on party Fagbash in Provincetown, queer-identified talent. All three of and I’ll be returning to Fagbash us have to love the music before we again this summer. And of course, put it out. We are currently looking Burning Man. for more artists to sign.

Okay then; what’s your best Share a little bit about the difBurning Man experience? ference between making a mix of I participated in the creation of other peoples’ songs and creating BAAAHS, the Big-Ass Amazingly new sounds.

Awesome Homosexual Sheep. After To me, mixing other producers’ all the hours spent building this songs is about showing appreciamoving sculpture before the Burn, tion for their work and simultaneit was surreal to suddenly see it ously offering a personal perspeccome to life on the Playa. The best tive on which songs sound good way to experience BAAAHS offtogether.

Playa is through video and photos

Cabure Bonugli/Shot in the City

Trevor Sigler DJs at Odyssey in November 2013.

(www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VjEn3p-So www.facebook.com/ BAAAHS.13).

I rode the BAAAHs at Burning Man with a bunch of really talented friends. The highlight of the week was doing a three-hour tag team DJ set with Jonny Seymour from Stereogamous. What could be better than DJing with one of my favorite artists from the top of a giant homosexual sheep with laser eyes?

Do you often DJ out of town?

SQURRRL happens four times a year in Los Angeles. Beyond that, I DJ wherever I get booked. I’m looking forward to returning to Provincetown this year for Fagbash.

When I’m not travelling for DJ gigs, I focus on producing original songs.

Tell us about some of your upcoming local events.

Pretty soon, I’m DJing a friend’s private birthday party as Tater Swift [his bewigged persona], so things are gonna get crazy.

I might even take requests.

We’re throwing SQURRRL at the Stud on May 17, and keep an eye out for SQURRRL pop-ups in the upstairs of DNA Lounge during Bootie. I’ll be playing with Nark (Seattle) and Two Dudes in Love for a special Friends With Benefits edition of Dickslap at the SF Eagle on May 31.

On June 28, I’ll be with SQURRRL at the main stage of Pink Saturday in the Castro.

Do you still buy records or download them?

I love records, but they are expensive. I would buy vinyl more, but because of the cost, I buy most of my music digitally. It’s really important to support artists by buying their work, especially when they’re independent.

What was the first record you ever bought?

It was “Whitey Ford Sings the Blues” by Everlast. Wow, what a throwback!t Buy Trevor’s new CD at www.beatport.com/release/trevorsigler/1277762. Listen to Trevor’s mixes at www.soundcloud.com/ tsigler3441

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6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 1-7, 2014

Fedorable @ El Rio

eON THE TAB f May 1– 8

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

5 Funny Females @ Great Star Theater

★ Sat 3 The Red Dress Ball

Susan Alexander hosts two nights of different five-women line-ups with numerous talented comics. $20. May 2, 8pm: Erikka Innes, Alison Kawa, Renee Gauthier, Luna Michelle, Joselyn Highes. 10pm show: Joselyn Hughes, Kat Evasco, Renee Gauthier, Glory Magana and Chantal Carrere. May 3, 8pm: Molly Sokhom, Lydia Popovich, Ruby Gill, Priya Prasad and Sandy Stec. 10pm: Chantal Carrerre, Paloma Cordova, Lilybeth Helson, Glamis Rory and Erikka Innes.

BYOB (really!). 636 Jackson St. at Kearny.

5funnyfemales.eventbrite.com

Friday Night @ de Young Museum

t

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

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

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event now also takes place on Saturdays! 3pm-6pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Bleaux @ Beaux Haute Toddy and Lindsay Slowhands' twerky poppy fun night at the stylish Castro bar-nightclub. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Nightlife events at the museum take on different themes. $20-$35. 6pm-8:30pm.

50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoung.famsf.org

Sat 3

Lychee Déjà vu Minnelli at the ALC fundraiser

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

House Party @ Powerhouse Ky Martinez and Guy Ruben play deep house muisc; leather-clad gogo guys, and proceeds going to Folsom Street Events, at the cruisy SoMa bar night. 10pm-2am.

1347 Folsom St. www.powerhouse-sf.com Georg Lester

Kentucky Derby Party @ Starlight Room

Thu 1 La Femme @ Beaux Ladies' happy hour at the Castro nightclub, with drink specials, no cover, and women gogos. 4pm-9pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

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

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

Jeremy Jordan @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The handsome pop singer performs his solo cabaret show. $45-$60. 8pm. Also May 2, 8pm; May 3 & 4, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Pearls Over Shanghai @ The Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers' hilarious Cockettes revival returns, with new choreography, costumes and cast members. $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Thru May 31. 575 10th St. (800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle The weekly live rock shows have returned.

9pm-ish. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge Retro disco tunes and a fun diverse crowd, each Thursday; now in its tenth year! $4.

10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

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

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

Sing out loud at the weekly least judgmental karaoke in town, hosted by the former owner of the bar. No cover. 9pm.

3152 Mission St. 829-2233. www.virgilssf.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences The museum's weekly cocktail parties continue, this week with a Jackpot gambling theme. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park.

379-8000. www.calacademy.org

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

Special Cinco de Mayo parties through the weekend include a show with El Simbolo Y Violeta. Drag show Monday May 5.

Enjoy eight bars, more dance floors, and a smoking lounge at the largest gay Latin dance night in the Bay Area. March 21, Valentino's birthday bash. Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Spring g has sprung!

Manimal @ Beaux Gogo-tastic night starts off your weekend.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Roller Disco @ Women's Building The monthly fun on wheels party rolls from 8pm to 12am. Costumes encouraged; skate rentals available; full bar; disco classics spun by Black Rock Disco's David Miles, Jr. 3543 18th St. www.sfindie.com

The surf bar goes dragfully gay with shows hosted by Anna Mae Coxxx at 10:30 and 12am. 180 Eureka Square, Pacifica. (650) 738-5905. www.thelongboardbar.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge

Nap's Karaoke @ Virgil's Sea Room

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland

Show Guise @ Longboard, Pacifica

Jukebox @ Beatbox

Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am.

4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Watch "the greatest two minutes in sports" on TV at this cocktail and big hat-themed event with an upscale "Derby attire" dress code (and Best Hat competition); buffet, one comp Mint Julip, and live music with Belle Monroe and her Brewglass Boys. $55. 1pm-4:30pm. Sir Francis Drake Hotel, 450 Powell St. www.starlightroomsf.com

Some Thing

Fri 2

Susan Alexander’s 5 Funny Females

VIP @ Club 21, Oakland Hip Hop, Top 40, and sexy Latin music; gogo dancers, appetizers, and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $5 after all night. Dancing 9pm-3am.

Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Fri 2 Bad Girl Cocktail Hour @ The Lexington Club Every Friday night, bad girls can get $1 dollar margaritas between 9pm and 10pm. 3464 19th St. between Mission and Valencia. 8632052. www.lexingtonclub.com

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

Themed Nights @ The Brig

Sat 3

If you're looking for a new sexual adventure, check out this new space.

Weekend events take place Fridays through Mondays, and the intimate venue with a jail theme offers slings, tables and various spaces for erotic play. Sat-Mon, above PopSex960 at 962 Folsom St. at 6th St. www.BrigSF.com

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

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

Club Rimshot @ Bench and Bar, Oakland

Sat 3

Weekly hip hop and R&B night. $8-$15.

9pm to 4am. 510 17th St. www.bench-and-bar.com

ALC Fundraiser @ Beaux Team Wells Fargo's AIDS Life/Cycle fundraiser for the June 1-7 bike ride fundraiser includes DJ Gehno Sanchez Aviance, Holotta Tymes, Lychee Déjà vu Minnelli, Jezebel Patel, and Paris LaQuinta. $10 includes bottomless beer from 4pm7pm. with Jello shots and raffle prizes.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Bootie SF @ DNA Lounge

Doll House @ Midnight Sun Derek Pavone guestDJs @ Go Bang!

Patty McGroin's monthly charity show includes wacky drag and comic talents, beer bust, Jell-O shots, raffle prizes; proceeds benefit The ARC of SF. 4pm-7pm.

4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

g

t

On the Tab>>

Go Bang! @ The Stud Derek Pavone and DJ Sol guest-spin at Steve Fabus and Sergio Fedasz' monthly classic disco groove night. $5. 9pm-2am. 399 9th St. at Harrison. www.gobangsf.com

Pillow-Case @ Club OMG Monthly music video dance party, where retro attire's welcome; DJ Jim Hopkins, drink specials, and Nathan Krause's birthday party. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubOMGsf.com

Red Dress Ball @ Lookout Second annual fun drag party, where red simply is "the" color to wear, is appropriately hosted by Donna Sachet, with DJ Byron Bonsall. $10 benefits the SF AIDS Foundation. 9pm-2am. 3600 16th St. at Market. 431-0306. www.lookoutsf.com

May 1-7, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Brunch @ Hi Tops

Sun 4

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

Cabaret Showcase Showdown @ Martuni's Season five of the local singing competition revs up with the cabaret category of Best Pop singer. Sing two songs, bring sheet music, no "click tracks;" with special guest judge How Weird Street Faire Alpha Mulugeta (aka Honey Mahogany).

Katya Smirnoff-Skyy and Jock @ The Lookout accompanist Joe Wicht cohost. $7. 7pm. 4 The weekly jock-ular fun continues, with Valencia St. at Market. 241-0205. special sports team fundraisers. 3pm-7pm.

3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Liquid Brunch @ Beaux No cover, no food, just drinks (Mimosas, Bloody Marys, etc.) and music. 2pm-9pm.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Michael Nesmith @ Great American Music Hall The former member of The Monkees, producer of the cult hit Repo Man, and other projects (like starting MTV), performs (non-Monkees) music with his folk-rock band. $50-$75. 8pm. 859 O'Farrell St. 885-0750. www.slimspresents.com

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

3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550

EDGE brings yo u eates t the lates t and gr in LGBT news & entertainment 365 days a year!

The popular country western LGBT dance night; enjoy fun foot-stomping twostepping and line-dancing. $5. 5pm10:30pm with lessons from 5:30-7:15 pm.

Also Thursdays. 550 Barneveld Ave., and Tuesdays at Beatbox, $6. 6:30-11pm. 314 11th St. www.sundancesaloon.org

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

Mon 5 Cock and Bull Mondays @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Specials on drinks made with Cock and Bull ginger ale (Jack and Cock, Russian Mule, and more). 8pm-closing. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

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

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun Sex 'n Drags n' Rock n' Roll @ Midnight Sun Mutha Chucka. Wigs. Rock music. Anna Conda, Christina Msladybug, Donna Personna, Duplicity Dilemma, Ginger Snap, Kitty Tapata, Kween, and La Moni Stat!

9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Sun 4 Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon The ursine crowd converges for beer and fun. 4pm-8pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. 3pm-6pm. Now also on Saturdays! 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Full of Grace @ Beaux Weekly night with hostess Grace Towers, different local and visiting DJs, and pop-up drag performances. No cover. 9pm2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Honey Mahogany's weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm, with a RuPaul's Drag Race viewing as well.

4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

The casts of local and visiting musicals often pop in to perform at the popular Castro bar's musical theatre night. 7pm-2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing.

18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

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

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

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

Tue 6 Block Party @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of music videos, concert footage, interviews and more, of popular pop stars. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Bombshell Betty & Her Burlesqueteers @ Elbo Room The weekly burlesque show of women dancers shaking their bonbons includes live music. $10.

9pm. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gayfriendly comedy night.

One-drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Ink & Metal @ Powerhouse Show off your tattoos and piercings at the weekly cruisy SoMa bar night. 10pm-2am.

1347 Folsom St. www.powerhouse-sf.com

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Strip down at the strip joint. $20 includes refreshments. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell.

397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Rey Pila @ Brick and Mortar The Mexican synth pop band, whose songs are deliciously hook-filled, performs live.

James Supercave headlines, Cazadero opens.

No cover. 9pm. 1710 Mission St. 800-8782. www.brickandmortarmusic.com

Showdown @ Folsom Foundry

Red Hots Burlesque @ El Rio Women's burlesque show performs each Wed & Fri. Karaoke follows. $5-$10. 7pm.

3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Rookies Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Competitors sign up by 8pm for a chance to win $200, the nude newbie starts at 9pm. The audience picks the winner; $20 for audience includes refreshments. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

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

4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

Sony Holland @ Level III The acclaimed jazz vocalist performs with guitarist Jerry Holland. Weekly 5pm-8pm.

Also Thursdays & Fridays. JW Marriott, 515 Mason St. at Post. www.sonyholland.com BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly night of trivia quizzes and fun and prizes; no cover.

8pm-1pm. 500 Castro St. 431-4278. www.harveyssf.com

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

Tue 6

Thu 8 Brian Jonestown Massacre @ Fox Theatre, Oakland The popular psych band performs classics and songs from their new CD Revelation, at the beautiful East Bay theatre. Joel Gion & the Primary Colors open. $30-$45. 8pm.

1807 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. www.brianjonestownmassacre.com www.thefoxoakland.com

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

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

Wed 7

Pan Dulce @ The Cafe

Mad Manhattans @ Starlight Room

Michael Nesmith

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

Weekly game night for board and electronic gamers at the warehouse multipurpose nightclub. 21+. 6pm-12am. 1425 Folsom St. www.showdownesports.com

Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Sun 4

Queer Salsa @ Beatbox

Rey Pila

Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops

How Weird Street Faire @ Howard & 2nd

The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata.

No cover. 7pm-10pm. 424 Cortland St. 6473099. www.wildsidewest.com

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey's

SF Weekly's "best of" party with music by '90s cover band The Frosted Tips. Proceeds benefit Cancer Prevention Foundation. $15.

6pm-9pm. 161 Erie St. www.publicsf.com

Pollo del Mar's weekly drag shows takes on different themes with a comic edge. 8:3011:30pm. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Miss Kitty's Trivia Night @ Wild Side West

Trivia Night @ Harvey's

Best of San Francisco @ Public Works

GlamaZone @ The Cafe

Blast off to outer space at the annual alt/culture freakfest, this year with an alien cosmos theme. Space drag "high"ly encouraged. Multiple stages for DJed and live music, including a Star Wars cantina band (really!); plus drinks, food, art and festivities. $10. 12pm-8pm. www.

HowWeird.org

Monday Musicals @ The Edge

The new weekly event includes classic cocktails created by David Cruz, and inspired by the the show Mad Men, plus retro food classics like prawn cocktails and Oysters Rockefeller, all with a fantastic city view. 6pm-10pm. 21st, Sir Francis Drake Hotel. 450 Powell St. www.starlightroomsf.com

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

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge Tenth anniversary of the intimate groovy retro disco night with tunes spun by DJ Bus Station John. $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Wesla Whitfield @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The veteran cabaret singer, beloved for her jazz interpretations, is accompanied by her husband Mike Greensill. $30-$45. 8pm.

Also May 9, 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 1-7, 2014

I am Curious, Leather Kink 101 for Anyone

by Race Bannon

There’s often an assumption that the readers of this column are generally established leather men and women or otherwise experienced kinksters who have come to accept that part of their sexuality or identity relates to various forms of kink.

That’s likely not true. Since this column is part of a larger publication catering to LGBT people of all stripes, it’s quite possible that you

might be one of those readers who is simply at the “I’m curious” or “I just might be kinky” stage.

If so, then let me assume that you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, are LGBT, and want to emerge from the curiosity stage to some initial in-person explorations. I’m going to assume that leather, BDSM or some particular related fetish are your main points of curiosity even though being kinky can mean having interests outside of those realms.

Nob Hill Theatre ROOKIES NIGHT

MAY 7 @ 8PM - $200 CASH PRIZE

MAY IS DOMINC FORD

LANDON CONRMONADTH MAY 9 th & 10 th SHOWTIMES @ 8PM & 10PM

Photo Credit: Dominic Ford

www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Being into leather does not always mean you are into BDSM or fetishes (except maybe a fetish for leather itself) because leather is often used as an umbrella term for a wide variety of sexualities. But for this column I’ll assume a leather, BDSM or fetish interest.

Where do you start? There is no one path on which to embark for such explorations, but here are some ideas.

I’d start first on the web. I must admit that I hesitate to send you initially to the web because the truth is that along with a lot of great information there’s a lot of crap there too. But there is a lot of wisdom in gathering some basic, foundational information about leather, BDSM and fetishes before pursuing other educational and social options. Just make sure to not assume any one site you read is the gospel truth and always cross reference information with a variety of sites and people.

Scan for overview material about BDSM, fetish or what is often referred to as leather sexuality or the leather lifestyle. Using searches that combine the words introduction and basics with words such as BDSM, kink and fetish will produce countless pertinent results. Pay attention to other links mentioned and perhaps click through to those as well. Bookmark sites that seem useful and perhaps take some notes.

And always remember again to take no one site as the gospel truth. Cross referencing is really important to cull out the crap information.

Race Bannon

Erik Will, the Chairman of Leathermen’s Discussion Group, with their most recent guest presenter, world famous leatherman Peter Fiske.

Be upfront that you’re a newcomer and that you’re starting with very limited information.

If you are a local gay man, I would suggest attending the monthly educational sessions hosted by the San Francisco Leathermen’s Discussion Group (www.sfldg.org). While their programs vary from the basic to the more advanced, they are always welcoming of newcomers and it’s a superb place to make social connections. In fact, that’s part of their mission to welcome newcomers into the scene with good information and socializing opportunities. Men and women of all orientations will feel comfortable there, but their target audience is absolutely gay men.

The Exiles San Francisco (www.

• 75 Channel Video Arcade •Erotic Shows Daily • XXX Adult Retail

729 Bush @ Powell • Info Line: 415-781-9468 Sunday – Thursday: 11:30am – Midnight Friday – Saturday: 11:30am – 1:30am

courtesy Missy Bootlover

Nick Elliot with the Exiles’ Missy Bootlover (center) and Lance Holman.

Next, utilize your friend and social network. If you have any friends or good acquaintances who consider themselves part of the local leather and kink scene, contact them and ask if they would be open to meeting you for coffee, lunch or dinner to answer a few questions.

Or at the very least, schedule a quick phone chat with them to discuss your interests and get their local first step exploration suggestions. There is simply no replacement for advice from someone you know or who is referred by someone you know.

Make sure to be prepared with a list of questions and remember there is no such thing as a stupid question.

t

theexiles.org) is an organization catering exclusively to local women, or people whose gender self-identification is other than male, with an interest in BDSM and the leather lifestyle. They often host BDSM 101 and other educational programs that are perfect for the newcomer.

Those who live in the East Bay might want to consider attending a meeting of the Alameda County Leather Corps (www.aclcweb.org).

They cater to men and women of all orientations and they are incredibly welcoming to all walks of LGBT people interested in various forms of leather, fetish and BDSM. If you do these things, are you going to immediately become a seasoned leather man or woman or an expert on BDSM, fetish or any other particular aspect of kink? No. But that’s not the point. The point is to get your foot in the door so that you can continue learning, experiencing and growing over time.

And remember that the world of BDSM, leather, kink or any sexual subculture is not primarily about a bunch of information, but is rather mostly about the connections and relationships that you build with other people who share your same interests.

So make sure to also frequent any leather or kink events at bars or other venues that you see advertised that might offer you the opportunity to meet others of like mind.

The calendar that accompanies this column will point you to many such great events. Building your kink network on Facebook tends to also

Rich Stadtmiller

Having fun at The Eagle.

be another great way to develop a social circle and plug yourself into what’s happening in the area for local kinksters. Many leather and kink events are promoted and organized primarily on Facebook.

Don’t get discouraged if the leather and kink scene might appear to be cliquish or exclusive at first. It’s not. Any new social group appears that way upon first exposure. Over time you’ll meet new friends and your network will grow and evolve.

It takes time.t

Riuch Stadtmiller

A leather night at The Powerhouse.

Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. www.bannon.com

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

May 1-7, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

The Edge of Nut

by John F. Karr

F

alcon’s got a new director in its fold, and has created a new line of movies expressly for him. The Falcon Edge series will be directed by “star erotica director” Nick Foxx.

Another new brand? Brands exist because studios, and not just Falcon, want their famed original lines to continue delivering a tried and true format, while they’re busily courting the revenue of new viewers with movies of varying substance on subsidiary lines. Twinks instead of dads, plots or no plots, that sort of thing.

I’ve found this profusion of lines confusing. Does each new director actually need his own line, or is it a vanity thing?

It’s the quality of work that defines a brand, not its newness or the promises of producers. Which, in this case, go like this: “Falcon Edge is going to be a modern, edgy take on the Falcon brand,” says studio president Chris Ward in a press release.

He promises, “hot, handsome men in fast-paced, high-energy sex... filled with studs with a distinct look and style. This is definitely Falcon with an Edge.”

And what about Mr. Foxx, whose last name has gained an “x” since he filmed a number of scenes for Randy Blue? “He’s hip, he’s young and he’s going to produce something new and different [with] a distinctive flavor.” Yet, with a ho-hum set that’s been previously much seen (and always looked fake, at that), and the movie’s mostly pro forma sex, the scenes of Ready to Fuck are pretty much Randy Blue redux.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing. If it lacks the “edge” part of its pledge, Ready to Fuck is certainly watchable, and lives up to those promises in other areas. The assurance of employing new (or new-ish) performers has been well met, with dudes like Black looker Adrian Hart, Latino hot stuff Rey Luis, and white candy Nick Sterling and Joseph Rough. Ushering them into Falcon-land are wellproven performers Landon Conrad, Connor Maguire, Jimmy Durano, and Ryan Rose, an Exclusive to Falcon who is happily and with gusto riding a wave of popularity.

One thing that truly distinguishes Falcon Edge, and which I hope will spread among all Falcon lines, is a new editing policy. Just imagine—

FalconStudios

Ryan Rose welcomes Nick Sterling to Falcon Edge, in Ready to Fuck.

Leather Events, May 2 – 21 There’s always a lot going on in the San Francisco Bay Area for leather and other kinksters.

Fri 2 Jacon Lourens @ Mark I Chester Studio Meet Jaco Lourens, Mr. South Africa Leather 2009. 1229 Folsom St., 8pm.

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm.

Sat 3 Leather Pride Contingent Meeting @ SF Eagle SF Pride Leather Contingent meeting and voting for this year’s Leather Marshals. 398 12th St., 2pm.

Fist City @ Mr. S Leather Men’s fisting party. 385A 8th Street, $20, 8pm. www.mr-s-leather.com/studio

Fri 9 Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm.

continuity. No longer lurching forward through a barely related string of sex acts, the scenes of Ready to Fuck are favored with editing that more organically guides us through a sexual experience. I hope it sticks.

Sticking to me in any number of ways is the movie’s opening scene.

The happy accident that paired towering Ryan Rose with delicious lad Nick Sterling is combustive, and the guys flare up mighty fine. Sterling has filmed scenes for Randy Blue, but will be new to most viewers.

Black-haired and lightly bearded, Nick’s got personality, a muscularly curvaceous body, a chunky cock, and a big ol’ beaut of a round, meaty ass that should make his a household name.

The guys first appear in revealingly tight tighty-whiteys. I’m an avowed bulge lover, and got a bang out of the way the guys nestle together. Rose is 6’3”, and Sterling is 5’7”—nearly a full head shorter than Rose. As they hug, their cotton-clad crotches nestle one below the other, locking in like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. I also got a bang from: a) the surprise of the guy’s flipfucking; Nick pounds Ryan’s ass, with every thrust pushing Ryan’s face deeper into the shag carpet; b) Nick’s meaty cock swinging around while he’s bouncing atop Ryan’s cock, bringing up a no-hands orgasm; and, c) the (partial) oral cumshot Nick receives from Ryan—after which he cums a second time. The scene deserves the near half hour it’s accorded.

The three remaining scenes deliver standard quality Falcon sex, at standard 20-minute length, although one of them, the Durano/ Luis fuck, rates a mere 17 minutes.

As far as I can tell, this is a debut for Luis, a compact cutie who withstands the standard, forceful Durano fuck with ease.

Joseph Rough, with some online videos under his belt, is an All-American jock with a big and warm smile. It’s his personality that enlivens Connor Maguire’s efforts.

Sat 10

Fri 16

Leathermen at Serial Mom @ Castro Theatre

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club

Leathermen go to a special screening of the John Waters film, with host Peaches Christ and guest Q&A with star Ricki Lake.

429 Castro St., $35-85, 8pm. www.castrotheatre.com

Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm.

Sun 11

Northwest Leather Celebration

Flagging in the Park @ National AIDS Memorial Grove Not leather/kink specific, but lots of leather and kink folk attend to enjoy the sun, music and friends at this event open to all flow artists – fanning, flagging, poi, staff, hoopers, and flow arts supporters.

1pm www.flaggercentral.com

Mr. and Ms. SF Sober Leather T-Dance Fundraiser @ Beatbox Come dance and raise money for the sober leather contingency in San Francisco. 314 11th St., $10, 2pm.

Wed 14

Fri 16 – Sat 17 Weekend leather/kink celebration open to all. San Jose, CA. www. northwestleathercelebration.com

Sat 17 Novice Workshop @ SF Eagle The Handball Academy hosts a 90-minute Q&A followed by three hours of practice under the guidance of experienced coaches. Advance registration is required.

Noon to 5pm. www.handballacademy.org

Hell Hole @ Alchemy Men’s fisting party. 1060 Folsom St., $25, 8pm. To get an invitation (you need to be on the email list) visit www.hellholesf.com

Golden Shower Buddies @ Blow Buddies

Wed 21

A men’s water sports night, Golden Shower Buddies, $15 with membership, 933 Harrison St., 8pm. www.blowbuddies.com

Guide to Prostate Pleasure @ Center for Sex and Culture

Master Taino @ SF Citadel

Presented by Charlie Glickman, and the Handball Academy; curious about prostate play? This event is for you. 1349 Mission St., free but donations encouraged. www.sexandculture.org

Living Real and Authentic Lives: The Key to Our Happiness, a talk and workshop. Eddy St., $20, 8pm. www.mastertaino.com

Red Hanky Nite @ Powerhouse

Thu 15

Men’s fisting social bar event. 1347 Folsom St., 9:30pm. www.hellholesf.com

The scene is highlighted by a good RC, and a climax in which Rough dumps his load on the camera lens, which has been peering up from below. The white haze nearly obliterates our view. It’s only momentary, but exciting.

Creamy brown and attractive Adrian Hart, is, at 5’3”, the second shortest porn star after Armand Rizzo, who clocks in at Judy Garland’s height, 4’11”. I don’t know about you, but small guys turn me on. They’re just so...handle-able.

Conrad looks great, and heartily throws Hart all around.

I doubt that Ready to Fuck met all of Falcon’s hopes for the Edge brand. Perhaps the company should have delayed filming until these

kinks were worked out. But this is only the brand’s first film, and I think I can wait to see how the movies will grow into the producer’s expectations.

Apologies

Too late before publication for me to make extended comment, I’ve found out that what I thought was a casual remark in last week’s column wasn’t that at all. It was decidedly not my intention to insult mr. Pam, and as a fan of her excellent filmmaking and exuberant personality, I am truly sorry for any distress I have caused her. In my next column, I’ll discuss other issues pursuant to the many online responses the article engendered.t

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