November 1, 2012 editon of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

Vandal hits Castro

Honduran candidate in SF

Hula Show

The

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SFAF, therapists spar over space by Heather Cassell

he San Francisco AIDS Foundation has found itself in a disagreement with a for-profit therapy collective as it prepares to take over the space in the Castro to house three of its programs. Courtesy SF Therapy Collective The SF Therapy Nancy Heilner Collective, currently located at 474 Castro Street, is losing its lease next spring and SFAF will move in. The collective also has a nonprofit arm, Queer LifeSpace, which is housed in the same building. SFAF officials said last week that they were unaware that the therapists were in the building until October 19, when they held a meeting with representatives from the group, who asked SFAF to provide $100,000 in relocation costs. See page 13 >>

Vol. 42 • No. 44 • November 1-7, 2012

by Matthew S. Bajko

T Jane Philomen Cleland

World Series champs! S

an Francisco Giants outfielder Angel Pagan greets excited fans along the parade route Wednesday, October 31 as the city celebrated the team’s four-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. Pagan, who made some great defensive plays during the

series, thanked fans from the stage during speeches at Civic Center Plaza after the parade. Mayor Ed Lee presented the team with the key to the city and a golden broom, which team CEO Larry Baer said would be kept at AT&T Park.

hree hotly contested campaigns for San Francisco supervisor seats remain horse races ahead of Election Day. Two out candidates seeking board seats have received jolts of momentum in recent Rick Gerharter weeks, though, increas- District 7 candiing their chances of be- date Joel Engardio ing victorious. Gay journalist Joel Engardio, running for the open District 7 seat west of Twin Peaks, received a surprise endorsement from the San Francisco Chronicle in his race. He is touting the paper’s backing on door hangers at every house in the district. See page 13 >>

BAY AREA REPORTER Attacks lobbed in

election endorsements CA legislative races GENERAL ELECTION LOCAL RACES

San Francisco Supervisors Dist. 1: Eric Mar Dist. 3: David Chiu Dist. 5: Christina Olague, first choice London Breed, second choice Dist. 7: Francis “FX” Crowley, first choice Norman Yee, second choice Joel Engardio, third choice Dist. 9: David Campos Dist. 11: John Avalos San Francisco Board of Education Matt Haney, Sandra Fewer, Rachel Norton, Jill Wynns San Francisco Community College Board Rafael Mandelman, Amy Bacharach, Rodrigo Santos BART Board, Dist. 7 Lynette Sweet

BART Board, Dist. 9 Tom Radulovich Oakland City Council Dist. 3: Sean Sullivan At-large: Rebecca Kaplan Berkeley City Council Dist. 2: Darryl Moore NATIONAL RACES President Barack Obama/Joe Biden STATE RACES U.S. Senate Dianne Feinstein State Senate (San Francisco) Dist. 11: Mark Leno State Assembly (San Francisco) Dist. 17: Tom Ammiano Dist. 19: Phil Ting State Senate (East Bay) Dist. 9: Loni Hancock

State Assembly (Regional) Dist. 15: Nancy Skinner Dist. 18: Abel Guillen Dist. 24: Rich Gordon Congress (Bay Area) Dist. 2: Jared Huffman Dist. 3: John Garamendi Dist. 5: Mike Thompson Dist. 11: George Miller Dist. 12: Nancy Pelosi Dist. 13: Barbara Lee Dist. 14: Jackie Speier Dist. 17: Mike Honda Dist. 18: Anna Eshoo Dist. 19: Zoe Lofgren

BALLOT MEASURES San Francisco Propositions Vote YES on A, B, C, D, E, G Vote NO on F California Propositions Vote YES on 30, 34, 36, 37, 40 Vote NO on 31, 32, 33, 35, 38, 39

with out candidates by Matthew S. Bajko

hree races for California legislative seats with out candidates have turned nasty as the 2012 campaign season comes to a close. And in a noteworthy twist, the negative attacks have had nothing to do with the trio’s sexual orientation. In Oakland, Assembly candidate Abel Guillen, who identifies as two spirit and dates both men and women, has had to defend himself against attacks that he has done nothing “to protect those least able to protect themselves.” Out in the Central Valley, lesbian Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani (D-Stockton) is in a heated battle for a state Senate seat. She has faced questions due to an Associated Press article detailing a little known rule that allows state lawmakers to change their voting records. And Galgiani has called out as “appalling” an ad about her record on taxes and vehicle perks. The Sacramento Bee deemed it to be misleading and factually “untrue or exaggerated.” The most heated contest appears to be down in Los Angeles, where gay Latino activist Luis Lopez and nurses’ lobbyist Jimmy Gomez have been at-

{ FIRST OF TWO SECTIONS }

Jane Philomen Cleland

Assembly candidate Abel Guillen

tacking each other for weeks as they fight for an Assembly seat. One claim lobbed against Gomez is that he hates, of all things, polar bears. Domestic violence advocates have also criticized Gomez for See page 12 >>

<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 1-7, 2012

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Jane Philomen Cleland

Just what the doctor ordered T

he offices of Lyon-Martin Health Services got a fresh coat of paint last weekend, as about 50 volunteers from Rebuilding America pitched in during the daylong effort October 27, including Erik Swenson, front, David Winters, and Denise Doetsch (on ladder). Lyon-Martin development associate Fred Lopez said the agency was selected by Rebuilding America and appreciates the contributions of the volunteers. Next up is new carpet.

Man detained in Castro window vandalism by Seth Hemmelgarn

an Francisco police are investigating a man suspected of breaking windows at the GLBT History Museum and the Magnet health center, which are located across the street from each other in the Castro neighborhood. Sergeant Chuck Limbert, LGBT liaison for the San Francisco Police Department’s Mission Station, said the man has been detained after allegedly breaking windows at the museum, 4127 18th Street, and Magnet, 4122 18th Street, between 6 and 6:30 a.m. Monday, October 29. The man hadn’t been arrested as of early Tuesday afternoon, October 30. “We do have a suspect, and we are doing a full investigation related to it,” Limbert said. He declined to share many details about the man, but he said the window vandalism wasn’t a hate crime. Limbert said the man’s alleged actions also weren’t related to celebrations in the Castro and other neighborhoods that took place after the San Francisco Giants won the World Series Sunday night, October 28. Events in some parts of the city that night turned violent. The district attorney’s office announced that as of Tuesday afternoon nine people would be charged with crimes including assault on a police officer, negligent discharge of a firearm, robbery, and arson of property. Limbert declined to say whether there were any witnesses to the windows being broken, but he said police are examining video surveillance footage from the area and other information. Paul Boneberg, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, which runs the museum, said, “Two of the four windows were smashed and need to be replaced.” A bottle was thrown through one of the windows, he said, but he didn’t know what was used to break the other one. He estimated the windows would cost from $3,000 to $5,000 altogether to replace. However, he said, “None of the displays were in any way affected.” The museum was closed Monday but it was open again for regular hours Tuesday. Boneberg, who said his understanding was that the incident occurred around 4:45 to 5 a.m. Monday, said besides replacing the windows, “My guess is we’ll also upgrade our security systems and

GLBT History Museum

A worker makes a temporary repair to a broken window at the GLBT History Museum at around 6:30 a.m. Monday.

insurance.” Donations for replacing the museum’s windows are being accepted. For more information, visit http:// www.glbthistory.org. Ryan McKeel, a spokesman for San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which operates Magnet, sent an email to several staff members Tuesday morning that said the center “sustained minor window damage during the Giants victory celebrations on Sunday night.” A photo provided by SFAF showed a window that had been shattered, but not completely smashed. Magnet, which provides STD testing and other services, “is open for business as usual this week,” McKeel said. “The damage to the front window does not pose any risk to customers or pedestrians, and the window will soon be replaced.” The damage is estimated at about $2,000. Anyone with information in the window breakings may contact Limbert at (415) 558-5400 or charles.limbert@sfgov.org.

Other incidents Two other recent incidents in the Mission and Castro areas include a bank robbery and a home invasion. At 3:40 p.m., Friday, October 26, a man robbed a bank in the 400 block of Castro Street, police reported. Police typically don’t release names of businesses that are targeted in crimes, but an employee of U.S. Bank, 443 Castro Street, confirmed that was the bank involved. According to a police summary, a man walked into the bank, wrote

something on a deposit slip, and handed it to a teller. The teller gave him an unknown amount of currency, and the suspect fled on foot, police said. Officer Albie Esparza, an SFPD spokesman, described the suspect as a white man, 35 to 40 years old, who’s about 5 feet 2 inches and weighs 170 pounds. He was wearing a black T-shirt with a white, “bird-like logo” in the center; silver-framed sunglasses with bluish-tinted lenses; a black, leather-type trench coat; blue jeans; a brown belt and brown boots; and white headphones, Esparza said. In the other incident, which occurred at 12:45 a.m., Sunday, October 28 in the 3100 block of 24th Street, two women who appeared to be partners were in their bedroom when they heard a noise coming from inside the apartment, police reported. An unknown suspect tried to open the locked bedroom door and announced himself, police said. After the victims, ages 27 and 32, heard him leave, they noticed their stove had been turned on and a plate that had been left on the stove was smoking. Esparza said the man identified himself to the women as Esteban. Numerous home invasions are reported in the city every week. Esparza said in this case, although nothing was taken and no one was injured, “It still rattles the nerves.” He believed there was no sign of forced entry in the incident, and he encouraged people to at least lock ground-floor doors and windows.▼

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November 1-7, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 1-7, 2012

Volume 42, Number 44 November 1-7, 2012 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Thomas E. Horn Bob Ross (Founder, 1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador • Erin Blackwell Roger Brigham • Scott Brogan Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • David Duran Raymond Flournoy • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell John F. Karr • Matthew Kennedy David Lamble • Michael McDonagh David-Elijah Nahmod • Elliot Owen Paul Parish • Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr • Donna Sachet Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Ed Walsh • Sura Wood

ART DIRECTION Kurt Thomas PRODUCTION MANAGER T. Scott King PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland Marc Geller Rick Gerharter Lydia Gonzales Rudy K. Lawidjaja Steven Underhill Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge Christine Smith GENERAL MANAGER Michael M. Yamashita DISPLAY ADVERTISING Simma Baghbanbashi Colleen Small Scott Wazlowski NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad

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B.A.R. election recommendations

ver the past several weeks, we have been publishing our recommendations for the November 6 election. Below is a recap. All of our editorials are available online at www.ebar.com.

receipts. This is a much more equitable manner to tax businesses and will bring San Francisco in line with other similar cities in California.

San Francisco Supervisors District 1, which includes the Richmond, is one of three very competitive races this year and we’re sticking with current Supervisor Eric Mar. Since taking office four years ago, Mar, a straight ally, has been a solid vote on the board for LGBT and HIV/ AIDS issues. He is also devoted to his district, and discussed with us his record in bringing green jobs to the area, as well as his record in job creation as evidenced by small businesses along Clement Street. In District 3, Board of Supervisors President David Chiu is working on increasing City Hall’s attention to nightlife issues, noting that in the past year crime at or near popular night spots is down. He has been a steady leader of the board, noting that the tenor among supervisors began to change in 2008. Chiu brings a collaborative attitude to the board that is much needed. District 5: An out bi woman for most of her adult life and a person of color, appointed Supervisor Christina Olague brings an important queer perspective to the board, which was missing before her appointment. Shortly after joining the board she worked with out Supervisors Scott Wiener and David Campos to request that the mayor backfill millions of dollars in federal AIDS cuts. She worked on programs that addressed the needs of LGBTQ seniors, supports the city’s new LGBT Senior Task Force, and was an organizer at the Senior Action Network. We also admire the courage she exhibited in her vote to reinstate Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi. District 5, second choice: We were very impressed with candidate London Breed in our meeting and she has a lot of good ideas. Breed is a straight ally and a native of the district; she grew up in public housing in the Western Addition. And she wants to put an end to the rampant violence, drug dealing, and other crimes that occur. District 7: Francis “FX” Crowley, a District 7 native, has a firm grasp of the issues and has a record as a public servant, community volunteer, and leader of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees union. He has a history working with LGBT folks, particularly in his union, where he said he consistently supported LGBT members to seek leadership positions. He thinks it’s important that boards and commissions reflect the city’s diversity and said he would recommend qualified LGBT candidates for such posts. District 7, second choice: Norman Yee, currently president of the school board, is a strong ally to the LGBT community, particularly on matters pertaining to school curriculum and education. He has a reputation as someone who gets things done for children and families in the city and pointed out that for seven years now math and English test scores have improved in public schools. District 7, third choice: Joel Engardio, who’s gay, is running a grassroots campaign in his bid to serve on the board. He pointed out that in San Francisco, there is new territory for LGBT candidates to pioneer. While the district is more conservative than many others in the city, there are shifts happening in some neighborhoods, where there’s been an influx of new LGBT residents. Engardio has the support of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. District 9: Since winning office four years ago, Supervisor David Campos has worked hard for his Mission district and for the LGBT community, of which he is a part. It speaks volumes that no one filed to run against him in his re-election bid, making this an easy recommendation.

District 11: Supervisor John Avalos became the progressive standard-bearer following his second place finish in last year’s mayoral race. He, too, is running unopposed for a second term and has our endorsement. A straight ally, Avalos has long been a leader of issues impacting the LGBT community.

SF Board of Education Among the non-incumbents running, Matt Haney stands out and we recommend him for election. Haney has direct experience in San Francisco schools, having served on the district’s Public Education Enrichment Fund Community Advisory Committee. He is a qualified candidate who can bring much to the city’s public schools. Incumbents Sandra Fewer, Rachel Norton, and Jill Wynns all have the knowledge and experience to continue serving on the board and we endorse their re-election. The school district is not in chaos like City College and some of that credit belongs to the board and its leadership.

SF Community College Board City College of San Francisco is on the brink of possibly closing. The community college, long considered a necessary scholastic institution of San Francisco, may lose its accreditation due to serious problems that were addressed in a critical report issued in June by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. The commission outlined a series of shortcomings, including an inadequate funding base, lack of a planning process, a failure to react to ongoing reduced funding, and inadequate administrative leadership. We say it’s time for new leadership – throw the bums out, if you will. There are four seats up on the community college board in November; we recommend three candidates: Rafael Mandelman, Amy Bacharach, and Rodrigo Santos.

San Francisco Propositions Prop A: City College Parcel Tax. YES Prop A authorizes a $79 tax on each parcel of residential and commercial property in San Francisco for eight years. Prop B: Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond. YES Prop B would authorize the city to borrow up to $195 million by issuing general obligation bonds to fund repairs and improvements to the city’s parks and open spaces. Prop C: Housing Trust Fund. YES Prop C is a Charter amendment proposed by Mayor Ed Lee with support from the Board of Supervisors and many community organizations to create a Housing Trust Fund that replaces the redevelopment agency, which was eliminated by the governor due to the state’s fiscal problems. Prop D: Consolidating Odd-year Municipal Elections. YES Currently the mayor, sheriff, and district attorney are elected in November of one year, and the city attorney and treasurer are elected in November of a different year. This measure proposes to consolidate off-year municipal elections with all the above-mentioned positions running in the same election. Prop E: Gross Receipts Tax. YES San Francisco is the only city in California that imposes a tax on payrolls. This is a job killer. Prop E would replace the payroll tax with a graduated business tax based on gross

Prop F: Water and Environment Plan. NO Proposition F mandates the City and County of San Francisco develop a plan to accomplish two goals: the first is to create a more sustainable water system by adopting 21st century efficiency practices such as waste filtration, water recycling, water reclamation, conservation, better storm water capture, and other best practices. So far, so good. Everyone supports water conservation and renewable energy. And for over a decade, the city has worked intensely to upgrade San Francisco’s water system. It’s the second goal of the plan that should make Prop F dead on arrival: eliminating the Hetch Hetchy reservoir and returning the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park to the National Park Service to be restored. Often there is not sufficient rain or snowmelt to meet our needs and Hetch Hetchy provides a reliable source of water that would be folly to give up. Prop G: Policy Opposing Corporate Personhood. YES We find GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s statement that “corporations are people too,” coupled with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, so odious that we have no difficulty supporting Supervisor John Avalos’s measure.

California Propositions Prop 30: Sales and Income Tax Increase Initiative. YES Prop 31: Two Year State Budget Cycle and Government Performance and Accountability Act: NO Prop 32: Special Exemptions Act. NO Prop 33: Automobile Insurance Industry Pricing Act. NO Prop 34: California Death Penalty Repeal Act. YES Prop 35: Increased Penalties for Human Trafficking Act. NO Prop 36: Three Strikes Law Modification. YES Prop 37: Labeling of Genetically Engineered Foods. YES Prop 38: Munger Initiative. NO Prop 39: Income Tax Increase for Multistate Businesses. NO Prop 40: Referendum on Redistricting. YES

BART Board Dist. 9: Tom Radulovich, who was first elected in 1996, is the BART board’s only out gay member. He pledges to strengthen BART’s commitment to civil rights, environmental justice, and diversity. Dist. 7: A banker by profession, incumbent Lynette Sweet helped lead the BART police department review committee that was established in the aftermath of the Oscar Grant shooting.

East Bay Races Oakland City Council Dist. 3: Sean Sullivan has the experience and background to begin work immediately. He is a gay man who understands neighbors’ concerns about public safety, and attracting businesses to the district. Oakland City Council At-large: Out lesbian Rebecca Kaplan won this seat in a landside four years ago and deserves a second term.

National President: Over the last four years, President Barack Obama had some major accomplishments regarding LGBT rights. Two stand out in our mind: one a major policy change and the other an important symbolic shift – the Democrats’ gutsy move in December 2010 to push through repeal of the military’s antigay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy with the full support of the president and Obama’s May interview in which he came out in support of same-sex marriage. He deserves re-election. U.S. Senate: Dianne Feinstein has been a solid voice in the U.S. Senate for LGBT rights since she was first elected in 1992. Now seeking re-election, Feinstein is the only choice for our readers and the Bay Area Reporter recommends her for another term.▼

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Letters >>

November 1-7, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Vandalism after Giants’ sweep I live near Greenwich and Polk (Russian Hill area), and Sunday night I went down to Polk to see what partying was happening in the street. All the drunk kids (20s) rushed out of the bars and uncorked champagne bottles, spraying them over everyone. They were also shooting off illegal fireworks. Polk Street was completely blocked for this illegal assembly and no traffic could get through. Then I walked down to Sutter and Polk – same thing. Not only was traffic stalled on Polk, but it was also stalled on Sutter, as everyone was partying in the intersection. I went home and saw that they were lighting fires in the Mission, that damage had been done to a frame shop, and that the Civic Center party, which was supposed to be alcohol-free, had scores of young persons uncorking champagne bottles and spraying them on everyone, and were seen holding beers. The police did nothing, the fire department did nothing, no arrests were reported on the news I heard, and the news channels – ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox – were all reporting what was going on, and for all the damage and law-breaking and illegal assembly they would literally say, “Well, we don’t approve of some of this, but they’re having fun.” Yet whenever citizens of the Bay Area peacefully protest drone strikes in the Middle East, the U.S.-sponsored wars, the banks that robbed this nation, and domestic spying by the U.S. government, and who protest for human rights, political rights, and social rights are shot at by the police, as was Scott Olson, with flash grenades and rubber bullets. The police rough us up, beat us and then arrest us for trumped up charges like blocking a sidewalk, or interference with a police officer. And the news agencies, mentioned above, as well as our Congress, focus on nothing but all the “terrorists” out their defending our democracy who are, in their words, hoodlums with no agenda other than to break windows and cause damage. What hypocrisy. I bet not even 5 percent of the people who were so drunk and disgusting Sunday night vote. Unless the news agencies change, and unless the same numbers who were partying last night, if not more, take to the streets to protest all the injustices going on this nation, I personally believe that our democracy will be nothing more than an oligarchic dictatorship run by a dozen or so wealthy bankers and Wall Street CEOs by 2020 with a puppet President and puppet Congress, which it almost literally is now. And it will be the fault of ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, and any other news organization that behaves this

way, and especially the fault of all the persons who would rather get drunk in the streets over a ball game than to actively participate in this very shaky democracy. Hal Christiansen San Francisco

[Editor’s note: Media outlets reported Monday that San Francisco police arrested 36 people in connection with post-Giants violence.]

Selby for supervisor It was disappointing to see that the Bay Area Reporter didn’t endorse Thea Selby for supervisor District 5. You see, Thea was one of my most interesting and prolific writers and down-to-Earth-good-persons when I had the chance to get out of her way back when I taught journalism at Stephen F. Austin High School in Austin, Texas. I know her family and all of her brothers and I was especially delighted when I learned that she was running for election as San Francisco supervisor, District 5. She would make both the city and the district downright proud. (And she doesn’t have a clue that I am writing this letter.) Thom Prentice, Ph.D. San Marcos, Texas

Suggested change to nudity ordinance Leatherman Desmond Perrotto wants to preserve the right to wear chaps, which leave buttocks bare [“Nudists stage protest of proposed ban,” October 25]. Supervisor Scott Wiener says he doesn’t wish to “interfere with people’s ability to wear chaps.’ To protect chaps-wearing, the supervisor should delete the word “buttocks” from his proposed ordinance. Many common costumes, including ordinary bikinis (let alone the thong) expose part or most of a person’s butt. In my queer opinion, most Kafir [non-Muslim] San Franciscans aren’t frightened by bare buns. Tortuga Bi Liberty San Francisco

Next up, chewing gum? Now that Scott Wiener is about to score a big brave political coup banning bodacious bare buns, what’s next, cracking down on chewing gum? Philip Rossetti San Francisco

Post-Halloween party to benefit cancer relief compiled by Cynthia Laird

wo cancer support groups will be the beneficiaries of Wig Out, a post-Halloween party Friday, November 2 in which attendees are asked to wear their craziest wig. The event takes place from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Parc 55 Hotel, 55 Cyril Magnin Street in San Francisco. The benefitting organizations are Slap Cancer (leukemia and lymphoma) and Locks of Love, which provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss. The party will include prizes for the wackiest wigs, as well as craft beers and cocktails. The event is for those 21 and over only. People can also get a free hairstyle consultation by Carmichael Hair Salon and Color Bar. DJ Ambrosia Salad will be spinning. Tickets are $30. For more information, visit wigoutparty.eventbrite. com/?ref=sosh#.

Spiritual exhibit in Oakland Show and Tell Concept Shop will engage the community in a secular and spiritual discourse when it presents A Gospel According to Matthew: LGBTQ History in Watercolor by San Francisco artist Matthew R. Burns. The exhibition, which runs through the end of the month, has its opening reception Friday, November 2 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Show and Tell Concept store, 1300 Clay Street, near the 12th Street BART station. An informal artistled talk will begin at 8. Show and Tell is approaching its

one-year anniversary and continues to showcase local designers, causedriven brands, and provides a safe gathering space for the Oakland community. The event is free and open to the public. Burns uses religious framework and the use of parables to showcase secular events in LGBTQ history. There is a focus on four categories: AIDS, gender identity, persecution, and liberation. “These paintings were born from a desire on my part to use color and figures to create an emotional exchange,” Burns said in a news release. For more information, call Show and Tell at (510) 463-4964 or visit showandtelloakland.com.

‘Movember’ cancer awareness November is here and for men that means it’s Movember, the cancer awareness month that sees men grow moustaches. The monthlong event raises awareness and funds for men’s health issues, particularly prostate and testicular cancer initiatives. Once registered at www.movember. com, participants start on November 1 clean-shaven. In San Francisco, a community shave down will take place tonight from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Otis Lounge, 25 Maiden Lane. For the rest of the month, the men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim, and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. The idea is that when friends, family, or co-workers ask about the sudden change in appearance, it gives participants a chance to talk about prostate cancer

and other cancers that target men, as the Bay Area Reporter described in a story last year (www.ebar.com/news/ article.php?sec=news&article=6133). There are several other local events planned throughout the month, including happy hours. For more information, visit the website.

LGBT aging confab at St. Mary’s The Institute on Aging will hold its LGBT and Aging seminar Wednesday, November 7 at the Event Center at St. Mary’s Cathedral, 1111 Gough Street in San Francisco. The daylong conference runs from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The cost ranges from $95 to $250 depending on the conference tracks selected and whether an attendee opts for continuing education credit. Topics covered will include challenges and barriers for LGBT elders accessing housing, HIV after 50, and alcohol, drugs, and suicide. It is unclear why a conference geared toward LGBTs is being held at St. Mary’s. New San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone is an outspoken opponent of marriage equality and the archdiocese recently prohibited the gay Castro Country Club from having its fall benefit at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. Laura Rhine, who’s listed as the institute’s contact person for the seminar, said it was her understanding that the event center is non-denominational. George Wesolek, the spokesman for the archdiocese, did not return a call seeking comment. For more information about the conference, visit education. ioaging.org/. See page 12 >>

<< Business News

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 1-7, 2012

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Web platform is changing communications by David Duran

ass-messaging web platform www.Regroup.com is changing the way universities, companies, and local governments are communicating with their respective audiences. Regroup enables users to send messages out to people wherever they are via email, text, voice, the web, and social media with one click. It provides both day-to-day and emergency messaging. Out CEO Joe DiPasquale, 33, founded the messaging company with computer science students from Stanford and Harvard as they realized there was a problem with effective communication in universities. “Administrators were sending out important announcements via email, but students weren’t on email,” said DiPasquale. “They were using text messages on their mobile phones, or social media like Facebook or Twitter.” Regroup allows for seamless communication between them all. As an MBA student at Stanford,

David Duran

Regroup CEO Joe DiPasquale also co-founded StartOut as a way for LGBT entrepreneurs to network.

DiPasquale said the university was using an outdated listserv product, and that they ultimately became a better alternative to the “mailman” system they were using by providing an easy-to-use product with a robust web interface and the ability for users to sign up to receive notifications in their preferred manner. One of their college clients chose Regroup after a security guard accidentally discharged his gun into the floor of the student library. “There was immediate panic on campus, and students didn’t know if they were in danger,” DiPasquale said. With Regroup, the university is now able to immediately notify students via all the methods the company offers, and get the official word out, keeping their students safer and more well-informed. Regroup’s initial business model assumed it would receive two rounds of venture financing before hitting profitability, but when the economic downturn hit in 2008, venture capitalists were not investing. The company had raised one round of venture capital, and immediately focused on profitability. “When your business is able to finance itself through cash from operations, time is on your side and you also have market proof that you are doing something valuable to customers,” said DiPasquale. Regroup was able to focus on internal operations verses being distracted by fundraising.

StartOut co-founder DiPasquale originally thought of the idea for an LGBT entrepreneurship organization in early 2009, and founded StartOut later that year along with Bryan Janeczcko, Darren Spedale, and Lorenzo Thione. “Darren had exactly the same idea, and with that type of market proof, we knew we had hit a need that many felt,” said DiPasquale. StartOut originally held events in New York and San Francisco, and has since expanded events to Austin and Los Angeles. “We are growing quickly and have many success stories, including those who have found employees, financing, co-founders, jobs, or simply learned about entrepreneurship through StartOut,” he said. StartOut provides an opportunity to both learn from and help fellow entrepreneurs. “I enjoy putting together the educational events that StartOut hosts, it’s an immediate icebreaker that allows our events to be very candid discussions of any events critical to starting a company, wheth-

er that’s funding, hiring, or selling,” said DiPasquale. On a recent panel DiPasquale put together for a StartOut event, an attendee asked the panel about nontechnical founders. A couple of the investor panelists responded that their funds have preferences for technical teams, and one even mentioned several funds that now only invest in teams where at least one co-founder is technical. “I think that calls out the difference between being an investor and being an entrepreneur,” said DiPasquale. He went on to say that as an investor, you have the luxury of playing the odds and betting on a few of the thousands of entrepreneurs you may meet, and as an entrepreneur, you are “risk-loving,” and have to bet on yourself. “Instead of focusing on what may statistically may be a harder path, you should focus on the many non-technical founders who have been successful with large ventures,” he said. DiPasquale, who came out during his freshman year at Harvard, feels that being gay helped him become a successful entrepreneur. “It’s a point of differentiation, and we all need to use our communities to help us in different ways,” he said. He went on to mention that there are only a handful of other LGBT venture capitalists, and being able to connect with them through Start Out has been helpful and educational, as he is now also a venture capitalist. In 2011, he began working with HighBAR Partners on its venture capital investments, and oversight of portfolio companies. HighBAR was the lead in Regroup’s VC round in 2008, and sits on the board of Regroup. Regroup has grown from providing emergency communications within higher education institutions to some more interesting uses for corporations and cities. One of their more unique clients is a large publisher that uses Regroup as an internal messaging system to contact the editors of its 38 publications about any important alerts. The company also has a large U.S. city that uses Regroup for its 30,000 employees to let them know customer service updates. Regroup is a 100 percent redundant system that can integrate with the several internal email and voice systems a city uses so that it has one single console through which they can contact everyone at any time. ▼ Venture Out is a monthly column highlighting a successful business within the LGBT community that is involved with StartOut. The organization strives to educate, inspire and support entrepreneurs. It fosters LGBT leadership in the business community by including social programming opportunities, providing role models, connecting mentors, and promoting equality. For more information on StartOut, sign up for its monthly newsletter at startout-cloud. org/register/?registration_location_id=20943. StartOut will hold a fall networking event Tuesday, November 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Hot Italian, 5959 Shellmound Street (at 64th) in Emeryville. There is no cost to attend. People who are in the process of building a company, or those who already have built a great company, are welcome to come and meet other similarlyminded people and learn about StartOut.

â&#x2013;ź

Politics>>

November 1-7, 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ BAY AREA REPORTER â&#x20AC;˘ 7

LGBT seniors panel elects leaders District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener said it is unclear what would happen to management of the flag if MUMC ends its oversight of the flagpole. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If MUMC decides to stop managing the flag, the flag would have to be managed by another community organization or by a city department. That department may be DPW, but it could be another agency,â&#x20AC;? wrote Wiener in an email. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My hope is that MUMC continues to manage the flag.â&#x20AC;? No matter what decision MUMC members make, the transgender flag will be flown on November 20, and to commemorate World AIDS Day, a

red banner will be added to the top of the flag on December 1.â&#x2013;ź Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check www. ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s online companion. This weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s column reported on Halloween and Day of the Dead plans. Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ twitter.com/politicalnotes. Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 861-5019 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

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Members of the LGBT Seniors Task Force, including Vice Chair Jazzie Collins, left, took the oath of office during their inaugural meeting October 24.

by Matthew S. Bajko

new panel tasked with documenting the needs of San Franciscoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s LGBT elder population elected two longtime community leaders to oversee its work at its inaugural meeting. By unanimous votes, the 15-member LGBT Seniors Task Force at its October 24 meeting elected attorney Bill Ambrunn as its chair and transgender activist Jazzie Collins as its vice chair. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My goal is to try to foster consensus among us and communicate robustly and try to find ways to bring our community together,â&#x20AC;? said Ambrunn, one of the leading proponents for the creation of the task force. A onetime deputy county counsel in San Mateo, Ambrunn served as a legislative aide to lesbian former Supervisor Susan Leal in the mid-1990s. In 2010, when he joined the Human Rights Commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s LGBT advisory committee, Ambrunn helped lay the groundwork for the creation of the seniors task force. Collins, the head volunteer for the San Francisco Senior Action Network, said during the meeting that one of her main goals is to see the panel focus attention on the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s LGBT senior homeless population. â&#x20AC;&#x153;How many are LGBT and how can we get them housed?â&#x20AC;? Collins asked during the meeting. Earlier this year the Board of Supervisors created the LGBT seniors task force. The panel has been given 18 months to research the issues facing the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s estimated 25,000 older adults who identify as LGBT and present City Hall with a detailed plan on how to address their needs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hopefully, we will pass on some great recommendations to the board,â&#x20AC;? said Ambrunn. To assist it with its work, the task force also voted to approve spending $60,000 in city and donated funds on a study looking into the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s LGBT elder population. Karen I. Fredriksen-Goldsen, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Washington and director of the Institute for Multigenerational Health, will oversee the research. A separate study looking specifically at the needs of LGBT people living with HIV who are 50 years of age and older is also in the works. The HIV Health Services Planning Council is expected to approve the study next week. Loren Meissner, 59, who is HIVpositive, has proposed to conduct

the research as part of his masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s project at San Francisco State University. Once he receives the necessary sign-offs, Meissner plans to survey 200 people about what issues they face living with HIV as they age. He hopes to have a final report based on the information from the surveys completed in May. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Unfortunately, as we all know, various statistics say that approximately half of the people in San Francisco with an HIV diagnosis are over the age of 50. That is a significant population,â&#x20AC;? said Meissner, who attended the LGBT senior task forceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first meeting.

Milk plaza benches to be removed This weekend the purple benches lining the upper walkway at Harvey Milk Plaza will be removed, little more than two years since their installation. When first unveiled in late July 2010, the metallic undulating outdoor seating was meant to help activate the public plaza above the Castro Muni station. The Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District paid for the benches. Due to objections from the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Arts Commission, initial plans to have armrests were nixed. The resulting design led to complaints from nearby homeowners and area merchants that the benches were a magnet for homeless people rather than an inviting place to sit for Castro denizens. Advocates for the homeless, however, argued the benches were not the cause of the problems and should be maintained. According to an informal poll on the now closed www.uppermarket.org website, 66 people supported removing the benches and 65 respondents said they should be kept. This week the CBD board held a special meeting and voted to remove the benches, which could occur as soon as Friday, November 2. For now the benches will be stored as the group continues to discuss what role it should play in making the plaza more inviting. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Besides the security and maintenance we provide there, what is our future role in the activation of and beautifying the plaza?â&#x20AC;? asked Andrea Aiello, the CBDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s executive director. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Given so many challenges at the plaza, with the design and transient population, we are revisiting our role.â&#x20AC;?

MUMC looks at relinquishing control of flagpole At its meeting this morning (Thursday, November 1) the Mer-

chants of Upper Market and Castro will vote on a policy change for the flagpole and giant rainbow flag that flies above Milk plaza. As the Bay Area Reporter noted in an October 18 story, MUMCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s board had already decided to no longer grant requests to lower the flag to half-staff to commemorate the deaths of noted LGBT leaders. It planned to wait until early 2013 to revisit the issue. Since early 2011 several community activists have questioned MUMCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oversight of the flagpole, complaining about the lack of transparency in how decisions are made. They particularly berated the merchant group for its handling of a request to fly the transgender flag later this month. Following the latest outcries, MUMCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s board decided to bring the matter before its membership. Two proposals will be brought up for a vote. The first would be to no longer replace or alter the oversize rainbow flag and keep it at full staff 365 days a year starting in 2013. The second option would be to allow any group that can provide a flag made to the specifications of the flagpole fly their flag at full staff, such as the leather flag for a week in September or the bear flag over Presidents Day weekend in February. If MUMC votes to go with the first option, then the merchant group will continue to pay for the insurance and upkeep of the flagpole. But if the members opt for the second option, then MUMCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s board would return the flagpole to the city for oversight as of January 1. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The board does not feel that MUMC has sufficient infrastructure to manage the flag, nor is it in our best interest to try, if the membership chooses the second option,â&#x20AC;? MUMC President Terry Asten Bennett wrote in her monthly message. A recent informal poll about the flagpole on the Huffington Post found 36 percent support for only flying the rainbow flag at full mast and another 33 percent who found the whole issue â&#x20AC;&#x153;ridiculous.â&#x20AC;? Just 12 percent wanted the community to decide, while 18 percent said there should be â&#x20AC;&#x153;some exceptionsâ&#x20AC;? made for flying other flags. Bennett told the B.A.R. that her sense is that few people favor seeing the city retake control of the flagpole, as before MUMC stepped in it was in disrepair and the rainbow flag in tatters. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think the general sentiment of the majority of people is they just would like it to be the rainbow flag flying all the time and not mess with it,â&#x20AC;? she said.

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<< International News

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 1-7, 2012

▼

Rick Gerharter

Honduran gay activist and candidate for the Honduran Congress Erick Vidal Martinez is flanked by Supervisors David Campos and Christina Olague during a visit to the Harvey Milk bust in San Francisco City Hall October 26.

Gay Honduran congressional candidate visits SF by Heather Cassell

ome Latin American countries are making marked advances in LGBT rights, but others continue to struggle, including Honduras. In 2009, Honduras was taken over by a political coup d’état, which ousted the democratically elected president, Jose Manuel Zelaya. In spite of political leaders signing onto the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, compliance with which is monitored by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, 84 recorded murders of LGBT individuals have occurred since 2009. Erick Vidal Martinez, Honduras’ secondever openly gay man to run for national political office, listed off the numbers of LGBT individuals

found dead to the Bay Area Reporter on October 26. Martinez, 33, is a trainer at the Center for Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights (CIPRODEH), where he’s recorded human rights violations against the LGBT community for the past three years. Prior to running for office, Martinez was a volunteer and worked doing HIV/AIDS prevention and LGBT rights for six years. Martinez was in San Francisco last week as a part of a California tour that took him to Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco. The Honduras Solidarity Network sponsored the October 17-27 trip. He was hosted by the Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition and Gays without Boarders, according See page 12 >>

Read more online at www.ebar.com

November 1-7, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

<< Sports

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 1-7, 2012

▼

Kicking open the Last Closet in sports by Roger Brigham

t has been nearly four decades since former pro football player David Kopay came out of the closet, and the past two years have seen a veritable explosion of initiatives and organizations launched to deal with LGBT issues in sports, from networks for athletes and coaches to pledge campaigns calling for support and tolerance. Ironic, then, that in the highest profile of American spectator sports, men’s major professional team sports, not a single active athlete has yet come out. In men’s pro sports, it would seem, our most visible advocates have been straight ally athletes. Call it pride by proxy. Earlier this week, as workers hammered away on the steps of City Hall to prepare staging areas to honor the 2012 World Series champion San Francisco Giants hot off of their sweep of the Detroit Tigers with a parade and celebratory speeches, San Francisco officials were inside to speak up for a new initiative to try to make pro sports more inclusive. The Last Closet campaign – a letterwriting effort launched by Woman Vision Productions that seeks public messages from the commissioners of the National Football League, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, and the National Basketball Association to support any gay pro athlete who

chooses to come out while still active – held a news conference Tuesday, October 30, with San Francisco Supervisors Christina Olague and David Campos, to announce a proposed city resolution asking the commissioners to speak up. There were no representatives from the local sports teams present, but Kopay and former Mayor Art Agnos, who had brought the initiative to the attention of Olague and Campos just four days earlier, both attended the news conference. Project manager Fawn Yacker said that while Woman Vision was working on a documentary about homophobia in men’s sports, the group realized it needed to speak with the commissioners about why there were no out athletes in their leagues. “That’s where we hit a brick wall,” Yacker said. “None of the commissioners would speak with us or grant us an interview.” There are numerous factors seen as obstacles to male pro athletes coming out, from fears of creating team distractions or losing career opportunities to internalized homophobia resulting in low self-esteem and lack of confidence. The Last Closet campaigners say those issues should be tackled head on. “We talk about championships, but you can not be a champion until you are a champion for someone else,” co-producer Cyd Zeigler of www.

Jane Philomen Cleland

Last Closet project co-director Jennifer Kelley, left, stands with executive producer Dee Mosbacher, retired NFL player David Kopay, and project director Fawn Yacker during a news conference Tuesday at San Francisco City Hall.

OutSports.com said. As for team distractions from dealing with an athlete coming out, he said, “Nothing can distract a team with good leadership.” Noting that no athletes in major pro sports have come out while still competing, Olague said, “Only afterwards do we hear some of their stories, after irreparable harm and hurt.” Campos said the dearth of out pro male athletes sends “an indirect message to our kids” that they cannot be welcome and successful. How important are sports role models to inspire today’s youth? Well, consider that National Youth Pride Services, a leadership and development group for black LGBT youth, has selected a list of “50 Black

LGBT People Every Black LGBT Youth Should Know,” and of the seven members announced so far, four (columnist LZ Granderson, former NFL player Wade Davis, WNBA player Seimone Augusts and GrecoRoman wrestler Akil Patterson) are best known for their careers in sports. A fifth, author Keith Boykin, won the gold medal in wrestling in the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago. Helen Carroll, sports project director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said athletes need the assurance of support from their leagues to protect their safety and to help with the educational process of changing current sports culture – a culture in which homosexuality and effeminacy

are seen as signs of vulnerability. “If you are a male playing a macho sport and you come out,” Yacker said, “that is something that does not resonate with the sports community at large.” Yacker said fining athletes after they are caught in interviews or on social media brainlessly bashing queers is not the best way to create a more open environment. She said it was critical for the leagues to work with LGBT organizations to provide a “safety net” for out athletes – and they need to publicly ask them to come out. “What needs to happen is for commissioners to make a definite statement on camera saying ‘You are invited to come out and we will do all that is necessary to provide the safe environment for you to do it,’” she said. “They need to be seen and heard. Behind the scene actions do not make a significant enough difference in an age when videos can go viral.” Kopay told reporters, “I was a desperate guy and an angry guy when I came out. I just needed to step up.” Desperation and anger are no way to live. Last Closet is asking pro sports to step up and show both enlightened leadership and compassionate support. You know, the kinds of things we all like to see in our sports teams. So gents, look into the cameras and speak up. Sing out like the Good Witch of the North inviting the Munchkins to “come out, come out, wherever you are.” As we have all known for a very long time, even in sports, there is no such thing as “silent but equal.” To join the campaign, visit www.TheLastCloset.org.▼

‘Spirits’ find celebration, diversity at exhibit by Peter Hernandez

trove of installation art ranging from illustrated window panes to acrylic transgender portraits to a crucifix made from dollar bills that

pays homage to LGBT heritage, are among the artwork in SOMArts’ Calling On the Spirits to Face the Future exhibit. Open through November 10, the menagerie of intimate installations

and mixed media pieces pay celebratory tribute to the deceased that exemplifies San Francisco’s multicultural approach to Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, which is observed November 2. A series of flattering fluorescent portraits in the style of Catholic prayer cards by Millan Gabriel Figueroa brings attention to murdered or incarcerated transgender women alongside gold lettering that reads “Justice for Sisters.” “I would like to speak to the ways that other societies praised and took care of trans, queer, and two-spirit people. Instead of pity and guilt I want the images to represent empowerment, beauty, and the need for inclusion and advocacy of the transgender community,” said gay artist Figueroa. His portraits feature transgender women who were victims of homophobic assaults, like 23-yearold Crishaun “CeCe” McDonald, who is serving 41 months in prison in Minnesota for a second-degree manslaughter conviction after stabbing a male assailant in self-defense after he and a group of people harassed McDonald and her friends for being transgender. The artwork is unlike quintessential Mexican folklore that typically permeates Day of the Dead festivities, where sugar skulls, skeletons, and Frida Kahlo imagery are ubiquitous icons alongside warmly-lit altars for deceased loved ones. Here, altars incorporate elements considered avant-garde to traditionalists, who opt for marigold petals to invite the deceased and offer gifts like food and indulgences. In transgender artist Elizabeth Oscar Maynard’s altar titled “Full Circle,” a jar of feathers sits alongside terra cotta planters with ascending ivy before a windowpane with stenciled, ecstatic caricatures of Alice Walker, Phyllis Lyon, and Cesar Chavez and other historic figures.

Courtesy SOMArts

Detail of Elizabeth Oscar Maynard’s altar titled “Full Circle” shows lesbian pioneer Phyllis Lyon and other notable leaders.

And near the entrance to the exhibit, gay artist Javier Rocabado’s “Norvus Ordo Seclorum,” Latin for “new order of the ages,” invites the viewer into a dystopian crucifix coated in U.S. dollar bills and studded with bullets before an acrylic painting of flames overlaying a blue sky. “It’s the new world order, like the colonial Catholics at the time,” Rocabado said, drawing a comparison between American colonialism and Catholicism’s introduction during Spain’s colonial era. Edmundo de Marchena and Jeff Barhoum-Lindo’s “Tree For All” is a participatory installation that asks viewers to identify their family using gender symbols, including a malefemale sign for transgender family members. From its branches, transgender members like Sam, Luke, or mama are identified and sway in passing. The spectrum of styles complements the variety of cultures represented. Curators Rene and Rio Yanez encouraged artists to focus on “positive forces” with the impending elections.

“The Mayans believed that the solar system’s cycles coincided with our own spiritual and collective consciousness and imagined the close of 2012 as a period of rebird and transition,” said co-curator Rene Yanez. SOMArts is located at 934 Brannan Street between Eighth and Ninth streets. Open Tuesday through Friday, noon to 7 p.m.; Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is free.▼

On the web Online content this week includes the Bay Area Reporter’s online columns, Political Notes and Wedding Bell Blues; the Transmission column; articles on the presidential race and Wisconsin and Massachusetts Senate races; the new executive director of OutServe-SLDN; the preliminary hearing in the death of a gay man; and last weekend’s sex summit in SF. www.ebar.com.

Community News>>

▼ Gay, disabled African American man faces eviction

November 1-7, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

by David-Elijah Nahmod

gay, disabled African American man living in his longtime family home in Diamond Heights is facing eviction and Occupy Noe activists last weekend staged a protest in front of a bank branch to demand action. The trouble started in mid-May, when Larry Faulks learned from a real estate agent that the home his family purchased in 1962 was no longer his. Faulks, 59, an African American gay man, claims that the bank took this action with no warning or notice of any kind. The Faulks’s were the first African Americans to own a home in the neighborhood. Faulks, who is disabled, currently lives in the house with his brother, who is also disabled. According to Occupy Noe housing activist Will Doherty (a.k.a. Stardust), Faulks was negotiating a loan modification with Wells Fargo, which promised him they would not sell the house. But the bank sold the Faulks’s home to DMG Asset Management, which has been buying homes in foreclosure in San Francisco and around the Bay Area. On Saturday, October 28, members of Occupy Noe staged a protest in front of Wells Fargo’s Noe Valley branch at 4045 24th Street. “The LGBT community has to stand up and fight back when banks like Wells Fargo and investment companies like DMG try to illegally evict members of our community like Larry Faulks,” said Doherty, who helped organize the event. Faulks was in attendance at the protest. “When somebody knocks on your door and tells you that your house is no longer yours, it feels like fascism,” Faulks told the Bay Area Reporter. “It feels like how the Japanese were treated during World War II. I followed all the rules. I did everything I was supposed to do. I sent the bank everything they wanted, but they went and sold the house. I complained to HUD and other federal agencies. The bank lied and claimed they attempted to call me, but those calls do not appear on my cell phone call log, which is my only phone.” The B.A.R. attempted to enter the bank to question the branch manager regarding Faulks’s claims, but was told that only account holders could enter. One of the branch security guards,

Obituaries >> Nova Lei Spears Gonzalez May 27, 1944 – October 16, 2012

Nova Lei Spears Gonzalez was born May 27, 1944 in Honolulu, Hawaii. A typical Gemini, with a beautiful soul, this talented man put his heart in as many things as possible, all for the greater cause of making life a better place. After moving to San Francisco in 1969, Mr. Lei quickly became involved locally and started his legacy. When the AIDS pandemic crushed the community in the late 1980s, Nova was right there in the trenches, bringing us light from the darkness. While his given and chosen family grew, he nurtured all. At this time, with his community partner and friends, Creative Talents was formed. This group of local talent produced events weekly both shows and contests, which raised countless funds for over 50 charities. Nova became involved with the Imperial Court and stepped up as Mr. Gay SF 1990, sharing his year with his beloved Lady Bobette and his efforts in producing charitable events grew. Even after moving back to Hawaii, his philanthropic ways continued until his death on October 16, 2012. He was 68 years young. A celebration of life will take place Saturday, November 10, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at The Arc San Francisco, 1500

Danny Buskirk

Protesters Fran Taylor, left; Iris Biblowitz, RN; and Susan McDonough stand in front of the Wells Fargo branch on 24th Street as a bank security guard attempts to block the photo.

who was stationed in front of the building, attempted to interfere with a photographer taking photos of the protest, but backed off when a number of the protesters challenged his right to do so. When asked to give his name, the guard refused. Faulks was an observer to the protest, as his health did not allow him to actively participate. He suffers from multiple drug resistant staph infections, and underwent surgery that he says didn’t turn out well. “I’m on IV antibiotics,” he said. “I’m in chronic pain and not getting sleep. I sent in a hardship application, but the bank kept losing the documents again and again. I feel powerless. I don’t know from day to day if I’m being evicted or not.” Before illness struck, Faulks worked as a tech writer. He was also a longtime volunteer at Community United Against Violence. Faulks’s eviction was set for October 31, according to a court order, but was moved up to November 7 after neighborhood activist Susan McDonough put in a request to the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department. McDonough told the B.A.R. that she became involved in Faulks’s case after an elderly neighbor of hers was given a predatory loan and then evicted from her home of 40 years. “There were 70 evictions in the neighborhood that same month,” she said. “I started knocking on doors, letting people know that we’re here to help them.” McDonough’s former neighbor is now in a hotel, which is where Faulks fears he and his brother may end up. “If I had been speculating it would

have been one thing,” Faulks said. “But I didn’t do that. I had a million dollars in equity, which is gone because they sold the house instead of me. Where do they expect me to go without money?” On Monday, October 29, the B.A.R. contacted Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf and Brenda Wright, the bank’s community relations manager. The call was returned by Ruben Pulido, the corporate communications representative for Wells Fargo. “We work hard to help our customers maintain home ownership when they are facing difficulties,” Pulido said in a statement. “We view foreclosure as a last resort. In cases where a customer’s income is insufficient to afford the home even with help, we actively look at remedies beyond modifications to avoid foreclosure and protect the surrounding community. “Unfortunately, we were unable to find an option that would allow Mr. Faulks to retain the home and had to make the decision to proceed with the foreclosure sale. With the sale of the property, all rights to the property were transferred to the new owner.” According to a search of court records, an unlawful detainer action was filed against Faulks in June. Doherty, McDonough, and other members of Occupy Noe offered a solution: “Wells Fargo illegally sold Larry Faulks’s house and didn’t tell him,” they said. “Wells Fargo needs to buy back the house from DMG investors and work out a fair loan modification to keep Larry in his family home.”▼

Howard Street at 11th. Donations for the ARC accepted in Nova’s name. There will be entertainment and food, ALOHA style. Colorful attire encouraged. Dance with the angels, flowers, and butterflies dear friend, as you fly across the rainbows up above. For information, contact Ray Tilton at dogandpup707@gmail.com or Jacques Michaels at remenberingnovalei@hotmail.com.

gan, where he met lifelong friend Barbara Sanders. After college, Leon settled in San Francisco where he blossomed, along with the gay liberation movement of the 1970s. Leon eventually became a chiropractor, and many in the Bay Area will remember his healing hands. A great teacher once told him that we have to be able to ask the right questions before we can grow to the answers: “As a doctor, I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I have over the years become very good at asking the questions.” Leon reincarnated Julia Child in the kitchen, and loved life to the fullest. He eventually relocated back to Atlanta, and Boston, where he touched so many lives with his love of life, and healing nature. Leon is survived by brother Herb, daughter Hannah, soul sister Barbara Sanders, friends Jeff Mintz and Susan Brennan, and many, many admirers in the Bay Area, Atlanta, Boston, and Japan. Fly high, Leon.

Leon M. Lashner July 22, 1949 – October 11, 2012

Our dear friend Leon Lashner passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on October 11, 2012. Leon touched so many lives it’s hard to know where to begin. Leon grew up in Atlanta and went to college in Ann Arbor, Michi-

ebar.com

<< Community News

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 1-7, 2012

News briefs

From page 5

Elder Wisdom Circle open house The Elder Wisdom Circle will have an open house in San Francisco next week, where people can learn about the program. The Elder Wisdom Circle, based in Walnut Creek, is a volunteer-run organization that provides free and confidential advice on a broad range of topics (excluding financial, legal, and medical). Online advice seekers from all over the world are paired with a network of seniors who share their knowledge, insight, and wisdom. Most seeking advice are 15-35 years old, but people of any age can request advice on most any topic and will receive a personalized email response. The Thursday, November 8 open house will be held at the Sequoias, an active retirement community located at 1400 Geary Boulevard. There will

CA races

From page 1

accepting a campaign donation from Assemblyman Roger Hernandez (DWest Covina). It was revealed this week that Hernandez, who was found not guilty of drunken driving charges after being pulled over in Concord earlier this year, was served with an emergency protective order Sunday after a woman accused him of physically abusing her. Hernandez’s campaign refutes the charges and has called them politically motivated. Gomez, in turn, has lashed out against Lopez’s “smear tactics” saying that because Lopez “cannot win on his record ... he has stooped to Karl Rove-style lies and distortions.” With less than a week to go before Election Day, the political atmosphere in races up and down the state has turned increasingly negative. In some cases it stems in part from intra-party fights between candidates pitted against one another due to redistricting or the top-two primary system. Independent groups have also been flooding certain races, as they are no longer restrained in how much money they can spend on their favored candidates.

Out in the World

From page 8

to Charlie Hinton, a gay activist with BALASC. During Martinez’s trip he has met with California political leaders, such as Congresswoman Barbara Lee (DOakland) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) along with local human rights and LGBT activist groups who held public discussions and a rally on October 27. He was also honored with the Legacy Award from the Federation of Gay Games at the organization’s 30th annual celebration in West Hollywood on October 21. Martinez is one of 92 congressional candidates running for the Liberty and Refoundation Party, known as the Libre Party. The Libre Party is the electoral arm of the National Front of Popular Resistance, a popular resistance movement organized by the people of Honduras that rose out of the brutal coup three years ago. Candidates representing four tenancies from the Libre party are vying for 23 open seats in the House of Deputies, Honduras’ version of the House of Representatives. Martinez was originally on the Libre ticket with another gay man, Erick Martinez Avila, with Martinez as Avila’s substitute. After Avila was murdered in May, Martinez stepped up. Victoria Gomez, a transsexual woman, became his substitute should anything happen to him. Martinez is hopeful, but realistic, in that he might not make it past the November 18 primary election, he told a small crowd of about 30

be a program from 4 to 5 p.m., followed by a social with hors d’oeuvres and beverages. Attendees will hear from people in Elder Wisdom Circle who offer advice to younger generations and how the program works. For more information about the event, call Doug Meckelson at (925) 945-8814. For more information about Elder Wisdom Circle, visit www.elderwisdomcircle.org.

Aging without children workshop Jewish Family and Children’s Services will hold a free workshop titled “Aging Without Children: Planning for the Future” on Tuesday, November 13 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at JFCS/ East Bay, 2484 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 210 in Berkeley. Organizers noted that estimates suggest that one in five people ages 65 and older do not have children. LGBT

seniors are four times as likely to have no children. Questions that will be addressed at the workshop include who inherits assets if there are no children and no plan; what is the role of a fiduciary for older adults without children; and who should older adults without children choose as their health care agent. Attorney Sara Diamond will be the presenter. Those interested in attending should RSVP by November 8 to rtufel@jfcs-eastbay.org or (510) 5587800, ext. 352. All are welcome but space is limited.

Fertility seminar for women in LGBT community At the other end of the spectrum is having and raising children and there’s a seminar coming up for that, too. A workshop entitled, “Growing Our Families: A Fertility Seminar for Women of the LGBT Community” will be held Thursday, November

▼

District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener and other local elected officials

will host a fundraiser for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to create a “Nuns Rock” in the National AIDS Memorial Grove to honor the many Sisters who have passed. The benefit will take place Thursday, November 8 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in Wiener’s office, room 274 at San Francisco City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place. A Facebook page for the event suggests a minimum donation of $25 although any amount can be donated and is tax-deductible. The page notes that currently, there is no community altar to remember those Sisters who have been lost along the way. The Sisters are an invaluable part of the community and have been on the front lines of the HIV/AIDS fight since the beginning. For more information, visit www. facebook.com/events/436480476416004/.▼

8 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Fertility Center, 55 Francisco Street, fifth floor, in San Francisco. Cathy Sakimura, staff attorney and family protection project director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, will be the special guest. The seminar will be hosted by a panel of fertility specialists, offering women of the LGBT community an opportunity to learn about medical options and legal issues surrounding fertility as well as psycho-social issue considerations for women in the community wanting to build families using advanced reproduction technology. There is no cost to attend. To RSVP, visit www.pacificfertilitycenter.com/ events.

Benefit for ‘Nuns Rock’ memorial

Groups aligned with Republicans are also fearful of seeing the Democrats reach a super-majority in the state Senate, and though more of a long shot, in the Assembly. The Democrats must pick up two seats in each chamber to meet the two-thirds threshold needed to pass tax increases without GOP votes. Galgiani’s bid for the newly created Senate District 5 seat is seen as one of those pickup seats. She is facing a strong challenge, though, from Assemblyman Bill Berryhill (R-Stockton). The Democrats have a slight voter advantage in the Stockton-based district, but political pundits consider the race a toss-up. Gay Assemblyman Rich Gordon (D-Menlo Park) described the contest as “tight” and a “barn burner” in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. LGBT groups have been working hard to back Galgiani, who came out of the closet last fall. The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, Equality California’s political action committee and the Central Valley Stonewall Democratic Club have all endorsed her campaign and helped fundraise for her. In a recent email her campaign sent out, Galgiani noted that it has been “a long campaign. But it’s almost over.” And she has tried to turn the ads

against her to her advantage, asking supporters to donate to her campaign so she can “answer these negative attacks!” Guillen has also tried to take advantage of the independent expenditures against him in order to boost his own campaign coffers as he faces off against Alameda City Councilman Rob Bonta for the open 18th Assembly District seat. Several emails sent in recent days by his campaign have detailed the actions Guillen has taken as a member of the Peralta Community College Board of Trustees. “People who know me understand I have dedicated my whole life to preserving the social safety net in our community, and to helping those who can’t speak for themselves,” Guillen wrote in one email. Bonta’s camp, in turn, claims that Guillen was the first candidate to go negative, breaking a pledge to run a positive campaign, by sending out a mailer critical of Bonta for supporting the purchase of a specialized emergency vehicle for the Alameda Police Department. “This is what you do when you have zero credentials related to public safety or K-12 education,” stated Bonta campaign consultant Mark Capitolo. The salvos seem tame compared to the charges being exchanged between

Lopez and Gomez in the race for the 51st Assembly District, based in the Echo Park and Eagle Rock neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Lopez’s campaign has played up the claims that Gomez is anti-polar-bear, which stem from the fact that several donors to Gomez’s bid are hunting lobbyists and pushed for a federal bill to allow the carcasses of the endangered artic mammals shot in Canada to be imported to the U.S. This week a Lopez email attacking Gomez stated, “He will take money from any source, no matter how despicable.” Ever since a poll in late September showed him with a 13-point lead in the race, Gomez has claimed that Lopez and his supporters have resorted to lies and deceits. He contends he has been falsely accused of not legally residing in the district and has called out Lopez for saying in a mailer that he is the “only Democrat” in the race. The Democratic Party is backing Gomez, leading Eric C. Bauman, a gay man who is chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, to complain that Lopez’s “deceptive behavior is wrong and misleads voters. The Democratic Party demands these distortions cease immediately.” The increasingly bitter contest between Lopez and Gomez is in stark

contrast to the fairly friendly match-up between lesbian Stockton City Councilwoman Susan Talamantes Eggman and her Republican opponent, K. “Jeffrey” Jafri, for the 13th Assembly District seat. Eggman is favored to win, and if she does, will become the first out female of color elected to the state Legislature. There are five other out incumbent state lawmakers on the ballot next week, all of whom are expected to win their races. In San Francisco Democrats state Senator Mark Leno and Assemblyman Tom Ammiano face little competition from their GOP opponents, local party chair Harmeet K. Dhillon and gay lawyer Jason Clark, respectively. On the Peninsula Gordon is expected to easily defeat his GOP challenger, Chengzhi “George” Yang, for the newly drawn 24th Assembly District. Assembly Speaker John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles) is set to claim a third term representing Assembly District 53 while Assemblyman Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) is running unopposed for the newly drawn Senate District 33 seat. And Assemblywoman Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) is seen as the favored candidate against gay GOPer Ralph Denney for the 78th Assembly District seat. ▼

people who came to hear him speak on October 26. A delegation of BALASC members, including Hinton, will travel to Honduras to witness the elections, he said. Martinez has two goals with his congressional campaign: one is so that his fellow LGBT citizens can participate fully in Honduran society as “true citizens,” and two is to find solutions to “larger problems” such as workers’ rights, safety and decreasing violence, food security, and many other issues that continue to affect Hondurans. He has witnessed a lot of fear within the LGBT community due to the backlash leaders have experienced and some survivors of those murdered without justice. Death threats against Avila and Martinez had been rumored within the LGBT community, but Martinez said neither he nor Avila received any directly. “When we began this process there was a lot of fear in the community because people have seen when the community comes out politically there are murders,” said Martinez. But as the months have passed the campaign has grown stronger, Martinez said, giving the LGBT community and its allies “more confidence and more faith.” “The young people are supporting us. I have nothing to believe in, but the leadership of the young people,” Martinez said. “People all over the country are writing, ‘We want to support you,’ and these people were invisible before.”

man rights record was dismal, in spite of signing onto treaties to protect human rights, in particular those of vulnerable groups, such as the LGBT community. For more than a decade human rights organizations and LGBT global rights groups have condemned Honduras’ ongoing brutality and uninvestigated murders of LGBT individuals. Soon after the coup, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, along with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, blasted Honduran leaders about the killing of LGBT individuals following the mutiny. During the first six months of the coup, nine gay men and 12 transsexual women were murdered. Since then five lesbians, 42 gay men, 28 transsexual women, and an unknown number of bisexuals have been murdered. Martinez’s friend Walter Trochez, who was killed in 2009, and Avila, are among those counted. An estimated 20 gay men and transsexual women have been murdered so far in 2012, according to Martinez. The murders are often blamed on “people who are taking vengeance or hit men, just common criminals doing it,” but members of the LGBT community know the deaths aren’t accidental, said Martinez. “It’s the leaders of the community who are being picked off. We know that it’s political,” he said. Abuse by authorities and police isn’t uncommon in Honduras. In 2006, a gay man named Donny Reyes was abused by police and gang raped by other detainees in his cell, ac-

cording to multiple reports. In 2009, before the coup, a transsexual woman, known only as Nohelia, was stabbed 28 times by a police agent and survived the attack, said Martinez, who couldn’t recall her last name. She took her case to court, but the process was delayed repeatedly without a sentence. Nohelia finally fled Honduras for fear of her life, he said. Avila was killed two weeks after he accepted the nomination to represent the Libre Party and only days after he made his nomination public in Los Necios (The Troublemakers), in an article for International Workers’ Day. Trochez was an HIV-positive gay man who was a defender of human rights alongside Martinez at CIPRODEH in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Adding to the problems is the fact that Honduran officials aren’t actively investigating the murders, said Martinez.

Compounding that is that IACHR and the U.N. only provide recommendations for Honduras’ Congress to follow to create legislation, not orders, he said. In 2010, the U.N. Human Rights Commission issued 128 recommendations, eight of which related to LGBT human rights, to Honduran legislators. But the Congress has yet to revise laws to comply with the recommendations, said Martinez. Additional pressure was placed on the Honduran government in June when openly gay Representative Jared Polis (D-Colorado), along with 84 fellow members of Congress, inquired about 70 murdered LGBT Hondurans, including Avila and Trochez, to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This week, the Inter-Americas Commission on Human Rights court will meet to review cases. Trochez’s murder is one of the cases the court will consider taking, said Martinez. “They left a very important legacy defending human rights in this community and my work also has been oriented along the same line as their vision,” said Martinez. “It’s a social responsibility to raise the dignity of the value of our community,” said Martinez about his decision to run for office in spite of the danger and mixed public opinion. “I can’t be indifferent and hide that something has happened.” He also knows that if anything happens to him others will follow his footsteps. “Other people will take on the leadership,” he said.▼

Body count Prior to the coup, Honduras’ hu-

Hope and justice To bring justice – at least for Trochez’s murder – Martinez and other human rights defenders recently began working with an investigative branch in Honduras, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. State Department, he said. Since this investigation began, authorities have arrested and detained 18 people allegedly responsible for some of the murders of LGBT individuals in Honduras, he said. “Even though this has happened the state of Honduras still keeps acting with impunity because there aren’t any judgments or trials,” said Martinez.

▼ <<

From the Cover>>

SFAF

From page 1

The foundation declined. Since then, supporters of the therapy center have taken to Facebook, posting comments to a story that appeared in last week’s Bay Area Reporter about SFAF’s plans. Nancy Heilner, a therapist who cofounded the collective, is executive director of QLS. She estimates it will cost the therapists $95,000 to relocate, which they can’t afford. The nonprofit counseling organization, which provides services to low-income clients, earned less than $25,000 in 2011, according to its 990 IRS filing, and projects its budget to be $60,000 this year, according to Heilner and Stacey Rodgers, QLS’s director of communications. There is no room for the expense of relocating. For the for-profit therapy collective, which was started by four therapists who used to work at New Leaf: Services for Our Community, Heilner said the estimated monthly income is $16,000 and therapists receive $3,000 per month in compensation (before taxes). It serves about 200 clients. The therapy collective and the nonprofit’s lease is up in April. Originally the landlord, George “Jorge” Maumer, wanted QLS to leave as early as late January or February, breaking the lease with the organization, said Heilner and Rodgers. The counseling organization’s executives have been able to get a verbal agreement from James Loduca, vice president of public affairs for SFAF, who apparently spoke with Maumer, to allow QLS to stay to the end of its lease, Heilner said. “We worked so hard to get this space up and running,” said Heilner, adding that staff put their “hearts and souls into this place.” “The thought of being so disruptive to our clients and to our training program is just devastating,” she continued. “This has just been a huge

SF supe races

From page 1

None of the better-known candidates in the race – Norman Yee, president of the city’s school board, former Port Commissioner Francis “FX” Crowley, and Board of Appeals President Mike Garcia – has been able to break out as a clear frontrunner. The outcome is likely to come down to the city’s instant voter runoff system, giving Engardio a chance to eke out a victory and become the first out person elected to a supervisor seat from a district on the city’s west side. “This race is anyone’s, I think,” Engardio told the Bay Area Reporter this week. “I think I can pull off an upset miracle no one expected because anecdotally I keep running into people who say they voted for me or their friend or neighbor told them about me. The signs look good.” The contest for the District 5 seat, held by incumbent Supervisor Christina Olague, continues to be upended following her vote to reinstate Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi. Appointed to succeed Mirkarimi, a former supervisor, earlier this year, Olague is running to become the first out bisexual to be elected supervisor. Her chances also improved after one of her main challengers, Julian Davis, became embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal. But those upset with her bucking Mayor Ed Lee, who appointed her to the seat and wanted Mirkarimi ousted due to a domestic violence incident between the sheriff and his wife, are gunning to defeat Olague. This week they launched a website, www.sfwomenforaccountability.com, attacking Olague for her vote. “We cannot allow her to roll back the progress we have made in preventing domestic violence and protecting survivors and so we have joined with other women and anti-domestic violence advocates to oppose her elec-

blow to us.” Loduca told the B.A.R. this week that the foundation would not move in until the landlord delivers the building to it vacant.

Blindsided SFAF representatives said that they weren’t aware of the therapy groups’ offices in the building and the lease agreement with Maumer when it signed a 10-year lease with him in late September. Loduca said that he only became aware of the issue when representatives from the collective scheduled an October 19 meeting with foundation leaders. That was the same day SFAF sent out a news release about its future location, but it did not include anything about the therapy center. The news release did state that Blush Wine Bar, located in the building, would remain. Loduca insists that it wasn’t SFAF’s responsibility to find out about the other tenants in the building or their lease agreements with the landlord when agency officials signed the lease. “As far as we know their lease is expired,” said Loduca, who maintained QLS/SFTC’s dispute is with the landlord. “There are leases that begin and end all of the time,” he continued. “It seems like the folks at Queer LifeSpace are really upset at us that their lease is expired and it’s really puzzling.” Heilner said that QLS/SFTC was told on September 21 that their lease wouldn’t be renewed due to a new tenant taking over the building, but the organization’s leaders didn’t know who the tenant was at the time. Maumer wouldn’t provide them with any information. The news wasn’t what the executives of the organization wanted to hear after attempting since May 1 to contact Maumer to negotiate a new three-year lease, according to Rodgers. Heilner said her team did wonder

November 1-7, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

why Maumer kept putting them off, especially since he knew they wanted to discuss extending their lease, but he had been difficult to reach in the past. Soon thereafter, the heads of the therapy organization became aware that SFAF was the new tenant through conversations with other tenants and clients who attended an SFAF gala where the location was announced, said Heilner and Rodgers. In an October 31 email, Maumer said that it was a difficult decision to terminate the leases of his tenants on the second floor of the building. He said that he tried only renting the bottom half, but SFAF’s needs were so large that the only way it would work was to rent the entire building, with the exception of Blush. Maumer also said that after the deal with SFAF was finalized, he personally met with all the tenants and “told them the situation and offered for any of them to move out whenever it is convenient for them.” “That offer alone can cost me several thousand dollars,” he said, explaining that if the tenants move out early, he’s stuck with empty space for several months until the new tenant moves in. Maumer also said that he gave QLS/SFTC a discount, charging them only half the rent of what he was getting from the prior tenant “to help them get started.” “That saved them thousands of dollars in the 1.5 years they have been there,” he said. “I feel that they (QLS/SFTC) are truly doing such a great work for the community and I want them to do well and continue their great work,” Maumer said. “But at the same time the SFAF is doing incredible work for the community and I was the only building in the heart of the Castro that could accommodate their needs for such a large amount of space.”

Hope Heilner said when they learned the

identity of the new tenant they were hopeful. “When we heard that it was the SFAF we thought that they might be able to help us in some way with moving costs and relocation cost,” said Heilner. QLS officials asked Loduca for assistance during their October 19 meeting. Loduca told QLS executives that the SFAF wouldn’t be able to assist them financially with relocating, but offered assistance with connecting them to potential real estate brokers and funders. Loduca told the B.A.R. that it became clear during the meeting that “SF Therapy Collective expects the foundation to cut a check for $100,000 to cover the expenses associated with the expiration of their business lease and relocation of its private and nonprofit practice.” Loduca said he explained that the foundation is a direct service organization and not a grant-making foundation. Loduca also alleged that the therapists described what amounted to blackmail, “when we go to the media and tell them that the big, bad AIDS organization is kicking the tiny queer nonprofit to the curb, it’s not going to look good for you.” For her part, Heilner said no threats were ever made, and that the therapy groups were doing fact-finding to see how SFAF operates. “They aren’t a foundation where they can give other nonprofits grants,” Heilner said was one of the reasons Loduca gave. The other was that SFAF would be launching its own capital campaign to raise the estimated $7 million for the construction and relocation of its Magnet, Stonewall, and Stop AIDS programs into the new space. “We are not a funding organization,” said Loduca, about the AIDS organization that serves an estimated 14,000 clients and has an annual operating budget of $24 million. “That would put us in a precarious position

to cut a check to a for-profit/nonprofit hybrid.” SFAF does grant money to AIDS organizations and groups that have HIV/AIDS programs through various fundraising efforts, most notably the annual AIDS Walk. This year alone SFAF granted more than a quarter million dollars to 36 Bay Area organizations from the AIDS Walk, according to a July 18 news release from SFAF. The largest grants this year were four for $20,000. The possibility of keeping QLS services in the building and relocating the for-profit SFTC offices to a different location was discussed during the October meeting. Heilner explained that QLS executives rejected that option because construction at the location would disrupt services for their clients. Also, it would be difficult separating QLS from SFTC as the therapists provide counseling to both paying and lowincome clients, making proximity of the offices to juggle appointments important. In spite of hard feelings on the part of the therapy groups, SFAF officials remain “focused on finding a solution,” said Loduca, who is attempting to make the relocation process of both organizations as smooth as possible. Another meeting with SFAF hasn’t been scheduled, but Heilner is in contact with Loduca, who has provided a real estate broker’s contact information and is working on other leads, they both said. Heilner hopes that her team will be able to find a new home for QLS/ SFTC in the Castro or Mission neighborhoods as they begin the search, she said. She is also hopeful that the community will come out to support QLS and the “good work that we are doing,” she said. “We are committed to continuing to provide the services that we do to the community,” said Heilner. ▼

Legal Notices>> tion,” stated Andrea Shorter, an out lesbian and former president of the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women, who appears in a video on the website. The latest hit against Olague comes after a number of progressive leaders, such as former Mayor Art Agnos and District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, have rallied to her defense. They recently gathered on the steps of City Hall to tout her candidacy. “Being progressive is not about being a robot,” stated gay rights activist and labor organizer Cleve Jones, who took part in the rally. “Christina is not a cookie-cutter, but she’s exactly what we should expect from a progressive leader: she is compassionate, independent, purposeful – and she knows her shit!” With a number of strong challengers in the race, such as London Breed, executive director of the African American Art and Culture Complex, and City College Board of Trustees President John Rizzo, the contest for the Haight and Western Additionbased district is considered a toss up to be decided based on ranked choice voting. As he fights for re-election in District 1, Supervisor Eric Mar could become the first incumbent to lose his seat in more than a decade. His opponent, David Lee, has hammered Mar as being out of touch with the needs of the Richmond district. Money has been flooding into all three of the supervisor races. As of Tuesday more than $1.1 million had been spent on the District 1 race, with the bulk of the funds ($705,207) going toward electing Lee. In District 7 the Ethics Commission this week raised the campaign spending limits for Engardio, Garcia and Crowley to $350,000, and raised the amount for Yee to $370,000. Total spending in the race is expected to exceed $1.5 million. The limit for candidates receiving

public matching funds in District 5 – Olague, Davis, Rizzo and Thea Selby, a Lower Haight neighborhood activist – stood at $310,000 as of this week due to the money being spent on behalf of Breed’s campaign surpassing that amount. “I think what we are seeing is really disturbing in the 11th hour this huge influx of cash from really wealthy downtown interests that are having a big impact on the races,” said Tom Temprano, the vice president of external affairs for the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club. The District 3 supervisor race, where Board President David Chiu is running against three little known opponents – Marc Bruno, Joseph Butler, and Wilma Pang– for the North Beach centered seat has not drawn much notice this year. Nonetheless, Chiu raised more than $240,000 since January. And last month he reported having $123,815 in his campaign coffers. Gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos is running unopposed for a second term representing the Mission and Bernal Heights neighborhoods. He is on track to have spent more than $110,000 this year, despite facing no opposition for his seat. In the adjacent District 11, Supervisor John Avalos is also running unopposed. He had raised nearly $60,000 as of late last month for his bid. With Campos, Avalos, and Chiu (should he win) all termed out of office in 2016, the three are seen as possible candidates to run for the state Assembly seat now held by Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), who will be termed out of office himself in 2014. Speculation has swirled around Campos, in particular, as being a likely candidate, having already succeeded Ammiano on the board. He has yet to form a state committee to run for the legislative seat, but is likely to do so as early as next year to begin laying the groundwork for a campaign.▼

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034665400

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034666000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AP AUTO SERVICE, 3501 Geary Blvd., SF, CA 94118-3212. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Aung Shwe Maung. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 02/29/08. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/19/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CAKE COQUETTE, 1501 Cortland Ave., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Gabrielle Feuersinger. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 10/17/07. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/22/12.

NOV 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034666200

NOV 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034686000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: POST STREET DEVELOPMENT, 1355 Post St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Anne Molloy. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 10/12/12. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/22/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EL CALAMAR, 428 11th St., SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed Juan C. Gonzales. 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 10/30/12.

NOV 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034673600

NOV 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034679700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BIGPAULYFILMS, 8 Sala Tr., SF, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Paul Harper. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ﬁctitious business name or names on 10/24/12. The statement was ﬁled with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/24/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EM CAFE, 2407 Ocean Ave., SF, CA 94127. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed Young Wang, Zhen Xing Deng, Chong Tseng & Shao Lun Zhang. 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 10/26/12.

NOV 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034668100

NOV 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034643100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COMPASS FOR FAMILIES, 3611 California St. #202, SF, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Lorenza Arnal. 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 10/22/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ENTERTAINMENT DESIGNER, 2690 Filbert St., SF, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed The Evan Bailyn Foundation 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 10/11/12.

NOV 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034644800

NOV 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-033757700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INSTA, 931 Steiner St., SF, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Brian S. Haight. 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 10/12/12.

NOV 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: POST STREET DEVELOPMENT, 1355 Post St., SF, CA 94109. This business was conducted by a husband & wife and signed by Patrick Molloy & Anne Molloy. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/15/11.

NOV 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012

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Legal Notices>> SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT ADVANCE NOTICE TO PROPOSERS The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, is advertising for proposals for the Procurement of eBART Vehicles, RFP No.04SF-140, on or about October 24, 2012, with proposals due by 2:00 PM local time, Tuesday, February 19, 2013. The Work under this Contract, in general, consists of providing the design, engineering, manufacture, assembly, testing, delivery, materials, Spare Parts, tools, equipment, performance and acceptance testing for eight (8) new Service Proven, lightweight low-floor DMU railcars or vehicles (“Vehicles”) ready for Revenue Service as more fully described in the Contract Documents. Additionally, there is one Option for two (2) additional Vehicles and one Option for four (4) additional Vehicles, for a total of up to fourteen (14) Vehicles. A pre-Proposal meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. at the District’s offices at the Kaiser Center 20th Street Mall, Third Floor, 344 20th Street, Oakland, CA 94612. At the pre-Proposal meeting, the District’s NonDiscrimination Program for Subcontracting and the District’s Small Business Program will be explained. In accordance with the District’s efforts to support the participation of Small Business and avoid discrimination in the use of minority and women owned businesses, Proposers are requested to attend an Outreach Meeting on November 14, 2012. The Office of Civil Rights will notify prospective Proposers of the time and location of the Outreach Meeting for the Contract. Prospective Proposers should make themselves available to discuss individual subcontracting opportunities with subcontractors and subsuppliers. Interested prospective Proposers are requested to confirm their intention to attend by notifying the District’s Contract Administrator, Mr. Gary Leong, email address: gleong1@bart. gov, or call at telephone number (510) 2874717, at least seven (7) calendar days prior to the date of the scheduled pre-Proposal meeting. Copies of the Request for Proposals (RFP) may be obtained by written request to the Office of the District Secretary, in person on the 23rd Floor at 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California 94612, or by mail at P.O. Box 12688, Oakland, California 94604-2688. Documents requested by mail will be sent postage paid. Requests must be accompanied by, either cash, check, or postal money order drawn in in favor of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District in the following amount, which includes any applicable sales tax, and is not refundable: RFP Documents (Includes forms for submittal of Proposals and a Compact Disc (CD ROM))...$75.00 CD ROM only..$10.00 Dated at Oakland, California this 24th day of October, 2012. /s/ Kenneth A. Duron Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 11/1/12 • CNS-2399828# BAY AREA REPORTER

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034629300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MICHAEL WILSON’S CLINICAL CONSULTING, 403 Broderick St. #2, SF, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed John Michael Wilson. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/05/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/05/12.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034634700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JOE CHEN PHOTOGRAPHY, 523 Brunswick St., SF, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Joe Chen. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/08/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/09/12.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034626200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WHITCOMB MARKETING, 47 Surrey St., SF, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Michael Keady Whitcomb. 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 10/04/12.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034618100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 7 ELEVEN #2366-35696A, 221 Sansome St., SF, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Mal & S Corporation (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/01/12.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012

City and County of San Francisco November 2012 Monthly Department of the Environment Don’t Forget to Bring Your Own Bag! San Francisco’s expanded checkout bag ordinance is in effect and all retailers are now required to charge $.10 for each checkout bag they give out. Single-use plastic bags are no longer permitted. Save some money by bringing your own bag when you shop. To find out more about the ordinance and how to get a FREE reusable bag, please visit SFEnvironment.org/checkoutbag Airport Commission The Airport Commission has commenced two Request for Proposal (RFP) processes. The first RFP is for the Airport Security Checkpoint Mail Service Lease. The proposed minimum financial offer is $5,000 with a term of three years with two one-year options, at Airport’s sole discretion. Annual Rent shall be the higher of the Minimum Annual Guarantee or 10% of gross revenues. The proposal due date is January 9, 2013. The Informational Conference is on October 30, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. at San Francisco International Airport, SFO Business Center, 575 N. McDonnell Road, 2nd Floor, Accounting Conference Room. For additional information call Ron Gonzales at Airport’s Revenue Development and Management Dept., (650) 821-4500. The second RFP process is for the Cellular Phone Rental Kiosk Lease. The proposed minimum financial offer is $60,000 with a term of seven years. Annual Rent shall be the higher of the Minimum Annual Guarantee or 12% of gross revenues. The proposal due date is January 17, 2013. The Informational Conference is on November 08, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. at San Francisco International Airport, SFO Business Center, 575 N. McDonnell Road, 2nd Floor, Accounting Conference Room. For additional information call Sam El Gord at Airport’s Revenue Development and Management Dept., (650) 821-4500. Please see http://www.flysfo.com/web/page/about/b2b/conces/ for additional information on both RFP’s. Alert SF Alert SF is a free system that allows users to sign up to receive text and/or email alerts from the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) during an emergency in San Francisco. Topics include: major traffic disruptions, watches and warnings for tsunamis and flooding, post-disaster information, and other alerts. To sign up, go to: https://www.alertsf.org/. 2012 BOARD of SUPERVISORS Regularly Scheduled Board Meetings OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Come see your San Francisco government in action. Tuesdays, 2:00pm, City Hall Chamber, Room 250. November 6, 20 • December 4, 11 INFORMATION ABOUT BOARD of SUPERVISORS COMMITTEES All meetings are held at City Hall in the Chamber (Room 250) or Room 263. Please check the website for further details, including agendas and minutes: http://www.sfbos.org/index.aspx?page=193 The City and County of San Francisco encourage public outreach. Articles are translated into several languages to provide better public access. The newspaper makes every effort to translate the articles of general interest correctly. No liability is assumed by the City and County of San Francisco or the newspapers for errors and omissions.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034628300

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034638400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: STARSEEDS, 599 3rd St. #206, SF, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited partnership, and is signed Starseeds (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LEAH GOLDSTEIN PUBLIC RELATIONS, 1630 Sacramento St. #4, SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Leah Goldstein. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/15/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/10/12.

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 09/27/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: MXB BATTERY OPERATIONS, L-PSHIP. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SF, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 717 Battery St., SF, CA 94111-1501. Type of license applied for

57 – SPECIAL ON-SALE GENERAL OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 10/08/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: WALGREEN CO. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SF, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 135 Powell St., SF, CA 94102-2203. Type of license applied for

21 – OFF-SALE GENERAL OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-548998 In the matter of the application of: CHELSEA ANN DEMING for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner CHELSEA ANN DEMING is requesting that the name CHELSEA ANN DEMING be changed to CHELSEA DEMING ELLSWORTH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 6th of December 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-548999 In the matter of the application of: JOANNA LEA SWYERS for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JOANNA LEA SWYERS is requesting that the name JOANNA LEA SWYERS be changed to JOANNA LEA ELLSWORTH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 6th of December 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012

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OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034636700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COMMUNITY LENDING NETWORK, 1 Sansome St. #3500, SF, CA 94104. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Mark Richard Moonier. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/04. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/09/12.

OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034639900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 79, 707 Sutter St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed June Sun Park. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/10/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/10/12.

OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034642700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: J + H LIMO SERVICES, 1435 5th Ave., Oakland, CA 94606. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Hung Huynh. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/11/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/11/12.

OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034651800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BIG AL’S ADULT BOOK STORE, 556 Broadway St., SF, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Khaldoun Al-Salti. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/15/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/15/12.

OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-549067

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034627800

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034628700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THREE BEES NURSERY; TRIPLE BK LANDSCAPE GARDENING, 1921 Clement St., SF, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation and is signed Three Bees Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/05. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MARLA BAKERY, 710 42nd Ave., SF, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Amy Marietta Brown. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/04/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/12.

OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034636400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CUP & CAKE CAFE, 2 Beach St., SF, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed E&Y Enterprises 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 10/09/12.

OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034613800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRIDGE AHEAD; TRU PERSONA; REQUEST QUOTES; THE HOME PROJECT; 1819 Polk St. #477, SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed The Bridge Ahead 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 10/01/12.

OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034632000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LA CHAVELA, 661-663 Divisadero St., SF, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Latin Hospitality Group, 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 10/05/12.

OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034641500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AVENS INTERNATIONAL, 100 Rae Ave., SF, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Kolja Rodici. 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 10/11/12.

OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034650300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SF HOLISTIC HEALTH; CASTRO HOLISTIC HEALTH CENTER, 2191 Market St. #D, SF, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Rachele Ferraro. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/09/01. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/15/12.

OCT 18, 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 10/09/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: SUZANNE NGAYING LO. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SF, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 6928 Geary Blvd., SF, CA 94121-1621. Type of license applied for

21 – OFF-SALE GENERAL OCT 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 10/15/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: LAMDUAN SOMCHIT. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SF, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 121 W 25th Ave., San Mateo, CA 94403-2259. Type of license applied for

41 - ON-SALE BEER & WINE - EATING PLACE OCT 25, NOV 1, 8, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034656000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOMA APPS, 550 S Van Ness Ave. #205, SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Dwayne A. Ratleff. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/12/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/17/12.

OCT 25, NOV 1, 8, 15, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034626000

In the matter of the application of: AMY LYNN HARPER for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner AMY LYNN HARPER, is requesting that the name AMY LYNN HARPER, be changed to TOBI AMY- LYNN HARPER. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 8th of January 2013 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLDEN RULE PLUMBING, 285 Justin Dr., SF, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Dennis Gilchrist. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/05/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/12.

NOV 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012

OCT 25, NOV 1, 8, 15, 2012

OCT 25, NOV 1, 8, 15, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034658900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GARCIA DESIGN STUDIO, 647 Connecticut St. #2, SF, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Garcia Studio, Architects Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/13/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/18/12.

OCT 25, NOV 1, 8, 15, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034610300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRESTIGE LIMOUSINE, 350 Bay St. #100-73, SF, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Prestige Limousine, Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/29/96. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/27/12.

OCT 25, NOV 1, 8, 15, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034639800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CAPT. EDDIE RICKENBACKER’S, 133 2nd St., SF, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ER Partners, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/28/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/10/12.

OCT 25, NOV 1, 8, 15, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 10/29/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: JULIO CESAR AGUILAR. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SF, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 6286 3rd St., SF, CA 94124-3110. Type of license applied for

41 - ON-SALE BEER & WINE - EATING PLACE NOV 1, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 10/23/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: F M SMOKES AND WINES INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SF, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 57 New Montgomery St., SF, CA 94105-3438. Type of license applied for

21 - OFF-SALE GENERAL NOV 1, 8, 15, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 10/26/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: BRAINWASH INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 33 New Montgomery St. #1230, SF, CA 94105 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1122 Folsom St., SF, CA 94103-3928. Type of license applied for

41 - ON-SALE BEER & WINE - EATING PLACE NOV 1, 8, 15, 2012 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-549017 In the matter of the application of: PAULINA MARIE OLAYA SMITH for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner PAULINA MARIE OLAYA SMITH is requesting that the name PAULINA MARIE OLAYA SMITH be changed to MASON JAIRO SMITH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 13th of December 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034682300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WC GALLERIES; WC SOLUTIONS, 2166 44th Ave., SF, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Andrew Nunez Agliata. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/10/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/29/12.

NOV 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034634800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ILIMO, 2383 26th Ave., SF, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Ismail Ezzikhe. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/09/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/09/12.

NOV 1, 8, 15, 22, 2012

Gilded Joe

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Vol. 42 • No. 44 • November 1-7, 2012

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New-wave hula & 3rd-stage Dadaism hit the Bay Area

The Hula Show 2012, presented by Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu, played the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco. Lin Cariffe

by Paul Parish

he Hula Show last Saturday was one of the most enjoyable dance events I’ve been to in a long time. There is no dance more wave-like, more intoxicating in its rhythms than Hawaiian hula – and like all the great traditions, hula has a huge range of forms within it, from

the royal forms danced at court to the dance of the people. As practiced and taught by the master Patrick Makuakane, director of San Francisco’s Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu, hula is a living language, and we saw amidst traditional Royal Hawaiian hulas a huge array of new “danced poems” – hulas based on club-dance forms, performed in

clothes people wear now, to music people dance to nowadays – that brought much joy and comfort to the soul. Most of all, the show brought a huge sense of relief, to see that at least one tradition has not gotten mireddown in identity politics. Stateside Hawaiians know how to bring their dance into the here-and-now without going a) all pious and stuffy, or

b) taking it to the other extreme by gnarling everything up (as ballet is doing) by getting technique-heavy, adding pirouettes and tweaks to the steps, so that you never see a phrase that means anything. With “Hula mua,” as the new hula is called, the levels of wit and “with-it” contemporary awareness are like 30s jazz, like those of Cole Porter’s day, when

“Anything Goes” and “Putting on the Ritz” were the last word in what’s happening now. Makuakane is a Hawaiian-San Franciscan – he interrupted the show to let us know the Giants had won, 2-0. And he’s willing to re-tell old Hawaiian myths in a San Francisco way: for example, he transformed See page 18 >>

Theatrical zeitgeist ‘Stage Left: A Story of Theater in San Francisco’ by Richard Dodds

H The San Francisco Actor’s Workshop presented Jean Genet’s The Balcony, one of the moments recalled in the documentary Stage Left being televised on Nov. 11. Priscilla Pointer

ow many years does it take to gain a worthwhile perspective on a cultural scene? After watching Stage Left: A Story of Theater in San Francisco, a documentary that looks at what laid the groundwork for our area’s present-day theater, I can tell you that 15 years is but a dot on the landscape. That is how long I have been observing and writing about theater in the Bay Area, and if someday the years of my tenure can be viewed as part of an epoch, it hasn’t as yet so registered. But there are identifiable epochs that Stage Left examines, and there is first-hand testimony from those who have survived to tell the tales, and revelatory clips that evoke aches for what one has missed. Austin Forbord’s

documentary has been screened in limited runs in select venues in the past year, but will be available to anyone with a television set when KQED presents the broadcast debut of Stage Left at 10 p.m. on Nov. 11. If you are looking for an overview of Bay Area theater today, this is not the place. While many contemporary companies are referenced, Stage Left is about what came before, when San Francisco was a petri dish that had a magnetism in a national culture transitioning away from lockstep conformity. The documentary opens with scenes from the psychedelic 1960s, but then soon reverts to 1952. That was the year that Herbert Blau and the late Jules Irving founded the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop, which is now consid-

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ered a seminal part of the emerging regional theater movement. “We began to do things at the absolute extremity of what you could put on a stage,” Blau tells the filmmakers. Introducing local audiences to Beckett, Brecht, Genet, Pinter, and Albee, the theater began cross-discipline collaborations that were so well regarded that the newly opened Lincoln Center hired Blau and Irving to operate its theater program in 1965. The Actor’s Workshop soon closed, and actor Peter Coyote recalls, probably with some exaggeration, that “what was left was the dregs, including myself.” An end of an epoch, maybe, but some of those dregs help found the Magic TheSee page 28 >>

<< Out There

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 1-7, 2012

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God save us queens by Roberto Friedman

esolute vegetarian pop singer Morrissey is touring the States with a round of concerts, and he always has plenty of opinions to share. In an essay for Hot Press website, he wrote: “The very existence of the Queen and her now enormous family – all supported by the British taxpayer whether the British taxpayer likes it or not – is entirely against any notion of democracy, and is against freedom of speech. For a broad historical view of what the Queen is and how she ‘rules,’ examine Gaddafi or Mubarak, and see if you can spot any difference.” Re the suppression of freedom of speech, the Moz offers as evidence “a statement from Commander Christine Jones of the Metropolitan Police last month, when she warned that any British people carrying anti-royal placards who are ‘seen in the vicinity of the royal wedding would be removed under the Public Order Act.’

This means that any political dissent in England is silenced in order to protect the royals, which in itself goes against every principle of democracy.” Well, OK, we can see his point. In rebuttal, we can only offer this vintage photograph of the young Queen Elizabeth square-dancing. You never saw Mubarak doing that.

Museum pieces Out There spent much of this past week within the fortress walls of SFMOMA, participating in events surrounding the opening of two major exhibitions, Jasper Johns: Seeing with the Mind’s Eye and Jay DeFeo: A Retrospective (both through Feb. 3, 2013). On Tues. night, we were invited to the Artist’s Circle and Director’s Circle reception for the shows; then on Wed., attended the media preview of the exhibits, while the annual press luncheon, in which director Neal Benezra and curators give an overview of the coming year, was rescheduled. We’ve been read-

ing both shows’ catalogues as well, a good way to get an in-depth command of the material. Look for arts writer Sura Wood’s reviews of both Johns and DeFeo exhibitions coming in the next two issues. Related: author and cultural critic Greil Marcus will discuss the work of Bay Area artist DeFeo (1929-89) in a lecture, Greil Marcus: Jay DeFeo and All That Jazz, on Mon., Nov. 5, at 7 p.m., at the Lisser Theatre, Mills College, Oakland. Press notes say, “DeFeo was part of a vibrant community of avant-garde artists, poets, and musicians in San Francisco during the 1950s and 60s, and was a faculty member at Mills College in the 80s. Although best known for her monumental painting The Rose (1958-66), DeFeo worked in a wide range of media and produced an astoundingly diverse and compelling body of work over four decades. Her unconventional approach to materials and her intensive, physical method make her a unique figure in postwar American art. Marcus is a contributor to the exhibition catalogue accompanying Jay DeFeo: A Retrospective, currently on view at SFMOMA.” Info: museum @mills.edu.

The young Queen Elizabeth cuts a rug in the distant past.

Play list We’ve been listening to the new album Gold Dust (DG/Mercury Classics), on which singer/songwriter Tori Amos revisits songs from her entire catalogue, reworks them in orchestral settings (arranged by John Philip Shenale), and records them with the Metropole Orchestra conducted by Jules Buckley. This has become a “thing” for contemporary recording artists who aspire to distinguished reputations, reworking their pop hits in orches-

Hula Show

From page 17

“the maiden who seduced the great fish who had dragged the Hawaiian Islands up from the bottom of the ocean” into “the hot sexy boy in a grass skirt and not much else who seduced the great fish.” That dance was by itself a playful, uproarious wonder, worth the price of admission. Perhaps the greatest example would be “The Birth-Certificate Hula,” a dance in honor of the hospital in Honolulu where President

tral arrangements. Sometimes it works (Joni Mitchell), sometimes it doesn’t (Paul McCartney). With Amos, the songs sound surprisingly natural in their high-art dressing. Perhaps it’s because she composed them and originally played them on concert piano, an instrument on which she was classically trained. It’s not such a conceptual leap from there to full symphony orchestra. The album spans her career, from her debut album Little Earthquakes

(20 years ago, in 1992) on. Some of them still pack quite a punch, and there’s nothing decorous about Amos’ lyrics. “I wanna smash the faces of those beautiful boys, those Christian boys. So you can make me cum, that doesn’t make you Jesus.” – “Precious Things” PS: RIP German composer Hans Werner Henze, who died on Saturday in Dresden, at 86. Major 20thcentury composer, major artist, major queer.▼

Obama was born. It just happens to be the same hospital in which Patrick Makuakane was born.”If Jon Stewart were to create a hula about the birth certificate controversy,” I quote the press release, “this would be it.” It would be hard to describe the rapture we felt watching this dance. Most of us who are about to vote in the general election know how stupefying it has been to see the Tea Party “birthers” refusing to believe in Obama’s citizenship. This dance sublimated that maddening feeling into an intellectual ecstasy that lasted the whole time the dancers performed their simple line-dance. It’s a pretty dance, no more difficult than the Electric Slide, set to a sweet ukulele tune with wickedly funny lyrics and cute hand-gestures (e.g., signing a document and rubber-stamping it) of the sort that all hulas have. Not only is the dance witty, it’s a kind of dance many of us can do, like the Achy-Breaky or the Cha-cha slide, which have, like most club dances, entered the culture unheralded, under the radar. The “Birth-Certificate Hula” joins a host of line dances in honor of President Obama, who is the first president since Madison to have a dance named after him. There are at least a dozen on YouTube, my favorite being the Obama Slide: www.youtube. com/watch?v=iHopCpXxp6g. Dance scholars know that concert dance draws its root strength from the vernacular: the waltz was a popular craze before it entered ballet, so were the czardas and polka. Every 30 years it happens again: Balanchine filled Concerto Barocco with shag rhythms and Charleston kicks; Twyla Tharp post-modernized ballet with aerobics and Broadwayisms. Makuakane’s got his dancers costumed in clothes kids wear now – board shorts (which of course have their origin in the surfer culture of

Hawaii) or little black dresses, and they’re dancing to country-western/ Hawaiian tunes like “Uehe, Ami, and Slide.” The best of this is, none of it is forced. Rockabilly fused with Hawaiian back in Elvis’ day. There are precedents for even the most outrageous new ideas: the sexy-boy dance had been preceded by a traditional hula in honor of the genitals of King David Kalakaua, a prayer for the king’s fertility, which has explicitly masturbatory gestures.

Beach party Meantime across the Bay, a different kind of avant garde was in evidence at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, where Cal Performances presented the long-anticipated revival of the 1970s Minimalist Einstein on the Beach by Robert Wilson/Philip Glass/Lucinda Childs. The lateDadaist, Minimalist opera had been sold out long before it opened Thursday night for its time-warping, five-hour-long nightly run. Although about 90 minutes of each show were devoted to Childs’ pure dancing intermezzi, which were choreographed in an exacting minimalist mode that taxed the performers in every conceivable way, the show’s stylization of movement extended over the entire evening, with every performer having to maintain the composure and posture of a department-store-window mannequin no matter what else they were doing. Childs’s choreography is deservedly famous. What I was not prepared for was to discover that the Asian-American dancer who mimicked poses from Jerome Robbins’ “Little House of Uncle Thomas” (from The King and I) was not a dancer at all but a gloriously-voiced lyric soprano. Such a show belongs in a great university’s arts series, and it was great that they brought it to town.▼

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Music >>

November 1-7, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Fleet virtuosity has a date with Davies by Philip Campbell

t might have felt like a bait-andswitch to anyone who didn’t get the memo. Israeli-born conductor Asher Fisch was pulled in by the San Francisco Symphony at a late date to replace the originally scheduled SFS debut of Jaap van Zweden, Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. After the unaware got up to speed by reading their programs, the general attitude appeared to be, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” or more precisely, “nothing lost.” Fisch, currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Seattle Opera, got his own surprise SFS debut without much ado, and any disappointed patrons will catch up with the missing Dutchman another time (his excuse was a scheduling malfunction). We rather doubt the real draw was the conductor anyway. Jaap van Zweden has a solid reputation and we look forward to encountering him live, but French pianist David Fray was also on the bill, and most nonsubscription tickets were probably sold on the strength of his growing fan base. As it turns out, the entire concert proved to be an unanticipated pleasure. Fisch was an unknown individual before, but he convincingly showed his appreciation of the burnished glories of the Brahms Symphony No. 4, and also proved why he is a respected opera conductor. His fine reading of Wagner’s Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin came as a welcome tonic to San Francisco Opera conductor Nicola Luisotti’s less polished rendition heard just a week before in the War Memorial. The Prelude still didn’t sound ethereal or thrilling enough for my taste (maybe it is only how we hear it in our heads), but Fisch immediately took charge, and his smooth and refined approach made the inclusion of the Brahms Fourth on the second half of the bill seem all the more logical. Between times, young David Fray approached the piano with his expected air of self-containment, but this was the only behavior he repeated to echo his SFS debut in 2010. We were a little chagrined by his attitude then: humming as much as Glenn Gould, hunching and slouching over the keyboard, and gesturing strangely while he worked his way through the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2. If you could get past the obvious theatrics, it wasn’t a bad performance. Fray is deeply attracted to Austro-German composers, and his recordings and videos back him up. He will need a few more miles on him before his Beethoven is totally convincing, but his Bach and even Schubert recordings assure most listeners that he is already a technically adept and interpretively satisfying artist. He is also as handsome as a cologne model. His highly photogenic face has yielded a full portfolio of smoldering glamor shots, and while this shouldn’t impact on his draw-

BARTABSF.COM

Courtesy SF Symphony

Israeli conductor Asher Fisch.

ing power at the box office, we all know that it does. I say more power to him. Like Tessie Tura belted out in Gypsy, “You gotta get a gimmick.” Fray has the talent to assure his musical credentials after the first impressions, and there is no harm in adding a little pop-culture appeal to a classical career. Losing the studied James Dean affect was a wise decision at this point. Fray most recently gave us a late Mozart Piano Concerto (No. 22,

Courtesy SF Symphony

French pianist David Fray is technically adept and satisfying.

in E-flat Major), and this time he really nailed the performance without any superfluous drama. Even without Jaap van Zweden to conduct (with whom he has recorded and performed the piece before), the former Shenson Young Artist of two years past has developed into a wonderful Mozart interpreter. There were a few slightly labored moments in the passagework of the first movement, but a wonderful central Andante (with a fabulously crafted interlude provided by the winds) led to a rollicking closing Rondo: Allegro. Any dark clouds were dispelled, and Fisch kept the orchestra delightfully in synch with Fray’s weighty but fleet virtuosity. The Brahms Fourth closed the night in a big and heartfelt way. Fisch adopted a confident and loving approach from the beginning, and he kept things moving beautifully until a brief episode of rhythmic hesitation in the final movement. It was hardly enough to spoil a particularly rich rendition of the score, and the conductor who kind of edged his way to the podium to make a debut at Davies Symphony Hall will surely get more fanfare when he returns. He has guaranteed another invitation.▼

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20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 1-7, 2012

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Fine Art >>

Shooting for social justice ‘The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936-51’ by Sura Wood

he Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936-51, the latest exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum and one of its most enjoyably edifying to date, amplifies a less recognized chapter in the complex narrative of modern photography, the period when it evolved from an objective documentary record of ordinary people and everyday life – in this case, bearing a covert social message – to an artistic medium that helped pave the way for a new generation of street photographers. This engrossing exhibition, where one can spend hours and lose track of time, follows the history of the League, a group of young, idealistic American, mostly Jewish photographers whose ranks swelled to 300. While illuminating the development of their work – a fusion of socialist ideas and art – through the socio-political and cultural forces that framed and shaped their values, the show also explores the group’s conflicting agendas and contentious internal debates about the role of photography. The more dogmatic members considered shooting a photograph a political act, and worried aesthetics would overpower message; others blurred those boundaries with impunity. Toiling in a photography-rich environment of glossy picture magazines, newspapers and books, a wealth of venues enviable by today’s standards, some utilized small, easily concealed 35mm cameras that allowed them to pivot and shoot inequality, poverty and injustice where

Erika Stone

“Lower Eastside Façade” (1947), gelatin silver print by Erika Stone.

they stood. On a nostalgic note, the show’s 140 gritty, urban, black & white vintage images, shot by 70 different artists during the 1930s and 40s, are a testament to an all-but-vanished New York City, a not necessarily beautiful metropolis, sometimes harsh, always restless, visually arresting and teeming with life. In Jack Manning’s photograph of a sprawling, four-story tenement, every balcony is jam-packed with people who’ve emerged from cramped quarters to watch the Elks Parade in Harlem. Shooting a dilapidated, overcrowded apartment building obscured by multiple tiers of clotheslines, Consuelo Kanaga’s work exudes her leftist activism and

compassion for the working class. Alexander Alland offers alternate views of the Brooklyn Bridge: a straight-on depiction as imposing and mysterious as the Giza pyramids rising from the desert, and another taken at a distance from the other side. One’s perception of the city depends on your vantage point. Organized chronologically, Radical starts on the eve of the Depression, and moves through the New Deal, the WWII years that saw an influx of women photographers, the racial tension and tentative rumblings of the civil rights movement, and finally, the Red Scare. The latter led to the League’s demise, yet another caSee page 28 >>

Books >>

Stella Adler, critic & interpreter by Tavo Amador

ebar.com T

he Group Theater, founded in Manhattan in 1931 by Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg, and lesbian producer Cheryl Crawford, lasted a little more than a decade, but had an enormous influence on acting and dramatists. Actress and teacher Stella Adler (1901-92), a member of a prominent New York Yiddish theatre family, joined shortly after the Group was established. Other well-known members included Elia Kazan, John Garfield, Clifford Odets, Irwin Shaw, and Franchot Tone. The Group was heavily influenced by Russian director Constantin Stanislavski, whose approach to acting was revolutionary. In 1934, Adler and Clurman traveled to Paris, and she spent five weeks there studying directly with Stanislavski, who had revised his basic approach to characterization. He no longer stressed personal memory, but instead emphasized imagination. This conflicted with Strasberg’s beliefs, and Adler broke away from the Group. (Strasberg went on to found the Actors Studio, which popularized the “Method,” as Stanislavski’s technique was called.) Adler appeared in a few Hollywood movies and acted in and directed plays in New York and London. In 1949, she founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, teaching her interpretation of Stanislavski’s Method. Her most famous pupil was Marlon Brando. Others whom she taught included Judy Garland, Robert De Niro, Martin Sheen, and Warren Beatty. Part of her teaching technique incorporated in-depth assessments of authors. Barry Paris has compiled and edited her insights in Stella Adler on America’s Master Playwrights (Knopf, $27.95). Paris presents Adler’s overviews of Eugene O’Neill, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, William Inge,

d Edward d d Albee. Alb and Each section has a detailed analysis of specific plays and precise instructions to actors on how to interpret the characters. He wisely balances masterpieces with minor works: O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Mourning Becomes Electra, and the rarely staged Beyond the Blue Horizon are discussed. For Williams, it’s A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, Summer and Smoke, and The Lady of Larkspur Lotion. Wilder’s most famous play, Our Town, isn’t covered, but By the Skin of Our Teeth is. Odets, Adler’s friend, is represented by Waiting for Lefty, Golden Boy, and The Country Girl. Who today has heard of Saroyan’s Hello Out There!? The one entry for Inge is Come Back, Little Sheba. Miller’s Death of a Salesman and After the Fall are contrasted, while Albee’s seminal one-act plays The Zoo Story and The Death of Bessie Smith represent him. Paris provides a helpful summary of each work and its production history. For Adler, the three giants of American theatre are O’Neill, Wilder, and Williams. She shows O’Neill’s impact

on those who followed him, while he himself was heavily influenced b Strindberg. “Is it possible to play by a man and a symbol at the same t time? That is what O’Neill made actors do.” According to Adler, he r replaced classical Greek tragedy’s f focus on man struggling against the g gods with man struggling “with all a aspects of life on an epic plane. It is n lyrical. It is melodramatic.” not Why does she rate the decept tively avant-garde Wilder so highly? “ “Nobody else has his style. It is the p poetry of life. He left you alone ons stage, without scenery or props, and l you to make great theater.” left She compares Miller and Willi liams. “In Miller, people are dest stroyed by their values and then d destroy each other. [They] rebel a against society.” Not so with Williams. “He’s very different. His characters don’t really want to find out who they are. They cannot face the reality. They run away from it. That is why he so captivates us – because of the romantic way in which he escapes the filth, the dirt, the frustration.” She extols Williams’ unequaled gift for beautiful language, even if it isn’t realistic. His genius was for poetic dialogue that sounded natural. Inge, says Adler, wrote about a period (the 1950s and 60s) and a place (the Midwest) that no one had described before. Saroyan was the poet of the underdog, and Odets a product of the turbulent 1930s and the Great Depression. Albee scathingly depicted American racism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism. Adler insisted that actors must understand the era in which the plays were written and the personal issues each author wrestled with if they are to effectively interpret their characters. Interestingly, while she often discusses the effect that an author’s socio-economic background had on his work (O’Neill’s first generation IrishAmerican heritage; Williams’ SouthSee page 21 >>

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Film >>

November 1-7, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Switched at birth by David Lamble

n the beginning of The Other Son, director Lorraine Levy’s perplexing but thoroughly humane exploration of identity in a confusing global village, a boy named Joseph, with brown eyes and a mess of curly hair, just shy of his 18th birthday, stands in his boxer shorts in front of a shabby metal desk in a darkly lit room. A youngish man in a military uniform, all business with a severe expression somewhere between a sneer and a don’t-fuck-with-me scowl, bombards the boy with questions. “Ever had surgery?” “No.” “Allergies?” “No.” “You smoke?” “No.” “Hashish?” “No.” “How often? Tell me the truth, Joseph.” “Now and again.” “What’s now and again? Every day? Once a week?” “Yeah, once or week or so. I’d rather my parents not know.” Joseph then gets on a scale like a nervous young boxer at a pre-fight weigh-in. “63 kilos,” the doctor calls out. In the sophisticated, affluent, urban Tel Aviv world that Joseph Silbers inhabits with his army colonel dad Alon and his French-speaking doctor mom Orith, this is how the Israeli Defense Forces process new draftees. Later that night, the Colonel jokingly advises the boy to enjoy his last night of freedom with his friends on the beach before “they scalp you,” meaning the traditional military haircut. “Joe, have fun!” The next day, all bets are off. Joseph’s blood type doesn’t match that of his parents. A DNA test is ordered, and there’s a meeting in the hospital, where an embarrassed official, speaking in English, tells two perplexed couples that the sons they’ve raised are not really theirs. Joseph is the biological son of an attractive West Bank Palestinian couple, Said and Leila AlBezaaz, while the boy they’ve raised, Yacine, the Silbers’ real kid, is a medical student in Paris. What to do? The parents are numb – the moms tentatively try to comfort each other, while the dads bristle and exchange political nonsense and oaths. The boys are almost old enough to decide for themselves, but should they even be told? Joseph is disoriented: he’s not going into the army – how will this look to his friends? Is he even Jewish? An unctuous rabbi explains, “It’s a threestep conversion. Circumcision: that’s already done. Acceptance of the Torah, that should be easy in your case. And immersion in a ritual bath with three rabbis.” “But rabbi, you said I was one of your best students.” “Judaism is not a belief, Joseph. It is a state, a spiritual state of being, tied to our own nature. Your real mother isn’t Jewish, so neither are you. Not yet.” “What about the one I was swapped with?” “He is Jewish – by his mother, by nature.” The other boy Yacine, the future

Stella Adler

From page 20

ern roots, his loathing of middle-class values, and his messy personal life; Wilder’s wealthy upbringing), she is silent (or Paris omits) anything about their respective sexual orientations. While Wilder was intensely closeted, Williams was openly gay. Inge never came out, but his orientation was known. Albee rarely discussed his homosexuality, but it was no secret. Yet it is impossible not to wonder how being gay influenced their views of the

Scene from director Lorraine Levy’s The Other Son.

doctor, is curiously elated, almost giddy at the perks of being a newly hatched Jewish kid. It’s like he was suddenly given an unexpected raise at work. Now he has papers to travel across the border between Israel and the West Bank and doesn’t have to endure the humiliating border checks like his once-fellow Arabs still do. Joseph and Yacine hit it off in a sort of nervous way. Joseph introduces the former Arab to his beach buddies as his cool cousin from Paris. Yacine gets a beach job hawking ice cream to the tourists, while Joseph worries about whether he’s about to be booted out of his niche as a guitar strumming, aspiring singer for whom sad songs are an uplifting tonic. The Other Son is a refreshing change of pace from all the films that traffic in Middle East horror. Levy has carved out an intimate tale of attractive, smart, empathetic young men who’ll decide for themselves where their loyalties and hearts lie, refusing to get bogged down in the exhausting minutia of two states or one. The film is charmingly French in tone, such as scenes where Joseph and Orith remain affectionately son and mother even after the biomedical bombshell has questioned their bond. There is just the hint of a more American approach to the enigma of identity, which makes The Other Son a future candidate for Castro double-bill status with the darkly funny Coen Brothers farce on Jewish Minnesota Nice, A Serious Man. Back in July, Jules Sitruk, the French-born Jewish actor who plays Joseph, appeared before an enthusiastic audience for the Jewish Film Festival screening of The Other Son at the Castro. Explaining that he had been acting since he was eight, Sitruk noted that Joseph was his first chance to show a boy becoming a man. I wonder if you could tell us some of the challenges of this role. Jules Sitruk: Actually it was a big challenge, because I’m a French guy, I’m not an Israeli guy. I knew a little bit of Hebrew, then I had to learn a little bit of Arabic, and I worked with the director to find the history of the character, and to prepare for the big scene where the mom tells my character the truth. This could have been a very sentimental film, but it’s not, it’s emotional in a way that’s the sign of a fine director. Describe the production challenges.

human condition and their art. Whatever devils O’Neill, Odets, Miller, and Saroyan faced, they were spared the rampant homophobia of their eras. Despite that glaring omission, Paris has performed a great service by presenting Adler’s astute perspectives about these writers, whom she knew and admired. Her views are valuable not only for actors, but for anyone interested in the American theatre and its extraordinary achievements. Although the book lacks an index, it is well illustrated with scenes from the original productions.▼

It’s not a big picture. We had to work very fast. I knew I had the role one month before shooting. I worked very hard with my Israeli parents. Lorraine didn’t want me to rehearse with my Arab parents, to make those scenes feel more real. It seems like the fathers had the toughest time adjusting, while the younger people, you and Yacine, were much cooler about the problems. Yes, the young people I met, Israeli and Palestinian, said, “Enough with the conflict, enough with the war,” and I think it helped that the director was a woman. I think the love of the mothers in the film is a sign of hope. Watching the violence in the scene on the beach, I was wondering if there was another ending contemplated? The director first saw a script by a male writer where one of the Palestinian brothers shows up with a suicide bomb pack. Lorraine said, “No way, that doesn’t make any sense.” Then she wrote and wrote, and came up with the version you saw, where the brothers figure out a way to go forward.▼

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<< Out&About

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 1-7, 2012

Electoral collage by Jim Provenzano

range and black; a Janus-faced season of holidays and orld Series victory behorrordays; scary sporty. A World n morphs into Election comes citywide mayhem. Halloween olitical piñata as before, Day. While we gays are not as big a political ricane Sandy is our fault. according to rightwing fundies, Hurricane And that kind of stupidity is scarier than any mask. Take on the fright night of politics. Vote. See politicallycharged performances, lectures and art.

Thu 1>> Apollo Run @ Amnesia Innovative Brooklyn-based y trio performs Here Be Dragonss, The Mu Musical. The New Cassettes and Amusia also al play. $10. 8pm. All ages. 853 Vale Valencia St. 9700012. www.apollorun.com www.apollorun

Assassins @ Ashby Berkeley Stage, Berk Shotgun Players’ production p of Stephen Sondheim’s Sondheim’ dark musical murd about political murderers. $20-$33. Wed/Thu 7pm. Fri/Sa Fri/Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Extended thru Nov 4. 1901 Berkeley (510) 841Ashby Ave., Berkeley. www.shotgun 6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Betty B Buckley @ The Rr Rrazz Room

Thu 1: Codebreaker @ Metreon 16 Ed Stoppard ( The Pianist ) stars in the new w film about Alan Turing, father of computer code, who helped win World War II with his code-breaking techniques, only to face antigay persecution afterward. $12. 7:30pm. 135 Fourth St. www.websandbox.co/codebreaker/

Ashkon Davaran stars in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Iconic Broa Broadway actresssinger performs perfo "Ah Men! The Boys oof Broadway" $45-$55. 8pm. Thru Nov 4 (Nov (N 3, 7pm & 9:30pm 9:30pm; Nov 4, 7pm). 2-dri 2-drink min. Hotel N Nikko, 222 M Mason St. (800) 380-3095. w www.TheRrazzR Room.com

Carm Carmelina @ Eureka Theatre 42nd Street Moon’s production of the rarely ra performed musical about abou a WWII “widow” who gathers gat three men who may be the father of her daughter. This is the musical that inspired the t Broadway hit Mamma Mia! M $25-$75. Wed 7pm. 7pm Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 6pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Nov 18. 215 Jackson St. 255-8207. www.42ndstmoon.org

Thu 1: Political Lectures @ Commonwealth Club Nov 1, Governor Jerry Brown discusses his support of Proposition 30, the education ballot measure. $15-$45. 12pm. Nov 2, 12pm, Leland Faust discusses “How Wall Street is Destroying America.” Nov 7,, 6pm, former White House correspondent Henry Eason discusses “the Night After: The Machiavellian Marketplace and the 2012 Election.” 595 Market St. 2nd floor. 597-6705. www.commonwealthclub.org

Sat 3: Dan Savage @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley The gay author and columnist, and founder of the It Gets Better YouTube project, discusses sex, politics and more at the Strictly Speaking series. $20-$42. 8pm. UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

Thu 1: Iron Curtain Cartoons, Life’s a Drag @ Oddball Films

Comedy Bodega @ Esta Nocha The weekly LGBT and indie comic stand-up night. This week, Marga Gomez, Colleen Watson, Matt Leib, Stefani Silverman. 8pm-9:30pm. 3079 16th St. at Mission. www.comedybodega.com

Hot Draw @ Mark I. Chester Studio Gay men’s sketch group, where a handsome model poses in sexy, kinky and/or erotic positions. RSVP day-of. Donations. 6:30-9:30pm. 1229 Folsom St. 621-6294. www.markichester.com

RonnVigh

Herconference @ Ebenezer Lutheran herchurch Sixth annual women’s conference on faith and feminism, spirituality and politics, with panels, music, meals, receptions, and keynote speakers Dr. Ching Kyung and Rev. Robyn Hartwig. $195. Thru Nov. 4. 678 Portola Drive. www.herconferencesf.org

The Hundred Flowers Project @ Thick House Crowded Fire’s world premiere production of Christopher Chen’s political dystopic drama where a theatre troupe struggles with producing a play about the rise of Mao Tse Tung, only to see the world outside their stage changing drastically. $15-$35. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov 17. 1695 18th St. 746-9238. www.crowdedfire.org

An Iliad @ Berkeley Repertory Theatre Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s adaptation of Homer’s epic poem about the Trojan War and its effect on soldiers and families on both sides, as told by one elderly survivor. $17$73. Tue, Fri, Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Also Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Nov 18. 2015 Addison St. at Shattuck, Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Con-Volution @ Hyatt Regency, Burlingame Three-day science fiction, fantasy and media convention, with panels, receptions, a Dr. Who-themed cabaret, and a few LGBT-themed panels with authors and publishers. $20-$60. Thru Nov 4. 1333 Bayshore Highway, Burlingame. (888) 591-1234. www.con-volution.com

Fri 2: Marga Gomez’s Day of the Dead Republican @ La Peña Cultural Center

Mon 5: Election Eve Comedy @ Harvey’s Drag-comedienne Pippi Lovestocking hosts with Keith Lowell-Jensen, Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, Ronn Vigh and Aundre the Wonderwoman. This fabulous line up will cover The Presidential election, local issues and whatever else comes to mind! No cover. 1 bar or menu item min. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. www.harveyssf.com

Tue 6: Election Night Party @ YBCA Watch the election returns and enjoy a spirited concert with youth performers, the San Francisco Rock Project and Destiny Arts Center. Free. 6pm-11pm. 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Death on Installment Plan @ Mission Cultural Center Gala reception for the exhibit Death on Installment Plan. $5. 7pm. Exhibit thru Nov. 17. 2868 Mission St. 643-5001. www.missionculturalcenter.org

Del Shores @ The Rrazz Room Gay creator of the funny Sordid Lives shows performs his solo stand-up act. $25. 10:30pm. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Desert Jewels @ MOAD North African Jewelry and Photography from the Xavier Guerrand-Hermès Collection, an exhibit of nearly 100 pieces of jewelry from

Day of the Dead @ Garfield Park Marigold Project’s annual procession and festive commemoration of the dead. Procession 7pm at 22nd & Bryant. Multiple creative altars on view 6:30pm-10:30pm, 26th St. at Harrison. www.dayofthedeadsf.org

[untitled] Reality Project @ Hastings Studio Theatre American Conservatory Theatre’s Young Persons Company performs a new work by Scottish playwright DC Jackson, a wry take on “reality TV” shows. $15. Thru Nov. 10. 77 Geary St. 6th floor. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Sat 3>> Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi

Gallery owner showcases his own art; new colorful pop paintings depicting animals and Native Americans. Opening reception, Nov 2, 6pm-8pm. Thru Nov 30. 565 Sutter St. 393-4511. www.nietofineart.com

Josh Klipp and the Klipptones @ Savanna Jazz

Calling on the Spirits @ SOMArts Cultural Center

John Nieto @ Nieto Fine Art

The local crooner and his band perform with co-vocalist and Bay Area novitiate, Emily Day. $8. 7:30-11:30pm. 2937 Mission Street. 285-3369. www.savannajazz.com

Group exhibit of Day of the Dead shrines, installations and artwork. $7-$10. Gallery hours Tue-Fri 12pm7pm. Sat 11am-5pm. Sun 11am-3pm. Thru Nov 10. 934 Brannan St. 863-1414. www.somarts.org

Geezer @ The Marsh Veteran comic actor Geoff Hoyle returns with his hit solo show about his youth in England, and growing older. $25-$100. Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Nov 18. 1062 Valencia St. at 22nd. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Mark I. Chester @ Wicked Grounds Exhibit of photographs by the veteran photographer of leather culture; thru November. 289 8th St. www.markichester.com www.wickedgrounds.com

Nayland Blake @ YBCA

Shocktoberfest 13 @ Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers presents an evening of horror and unhinged comedy with two worldpremiere one-act plays and a classic: Coals of Fire by Fredrick Whitney, The Bride of Death by Michael Phillis, and Rob Keefe’s The Twisted Pair. $25-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov 17. 575 10th St. (800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Fri 2

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

Jerry Miller and Marcel DaGuerre’s musical of “karmic proportions,” based on the Edgar Allan Poe poem. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun 3pm. Thru Nov 4. 2961 16th St. (800) 838-3006. www.facebook.com/ TheRavenMusical

Fri 2 >>

Local singer/actor Ashkon Davaran (the Giants’ “Don’t Stop Believin’” anthem, Beardo ) stars in Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman’s presidential musical, an acclaimed rock rendition of the life of one our first and most controversial elected leaders. $30-$70. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm. Thru Nov 24. 450 Post St. (2nd floor of Kensington Park Hotel). 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff directed this new translation (by Timberlake Wertenbaker) of the timeless Greek tragedy, which features actress Olympia Dukakis, and music by Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Lang. $30-$100. Wed-Sat 8pm. Also Wed, Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Nov 18. 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

The Raven @ Victoria Theatre

Political commentator and comic takes on the election, or what he calls a “circus wrapped inside a game show covered in poisonous weasel glitter.” $25-$30. Jewish Community Center, 3200 California St. 292-1233. www.jccsf.org/arts

Sat 3: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson @ SF Playhouse

Electra @ American Conservatory Theatre

Author the gay-themed novels Chemistry and The Heart’s History reads from and discusses his work. Free. 7:30pm. 2275 Market St. www.booksinc.net

Sat 3: Will Durst @ Kanbar Hall

The wry comic master presents a politically-themed comedy night, with a Romney altar to his blandness and political mendacity; plus takes on lesbian heiresses, Pussy Riot and more. $20. 8pm. Also Nov 3. 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. www.margagomez.com www.lapena.org

Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, plus documentary photographs. Thru Jan 21. $5$10. Members free. Wed-Sat 11am-6pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission St. 358-7200. www.moadsf.org

Lewis DeSimone @ Books Inc.

Rare and masterful animated short films from Poland,Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and other formerly Soviet-ruled countries. 8pm. Nov 2, 8pm: vintage short drag films, including the historic 1962 Sinderella, shot entirely in San Francisco. $10. 275 Capp St. 558-8117. www.oddballfilms.blogspot.com

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Fri 2 Prince Herman @ Magnet “Stained Glass Pornography,” an exhibit of the local artist’s fascinating erotic glassworks. Opening reception 8pm-10pm. Thru Nov. 4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org

Midnites for Maniacs @ Castro Theatre Triple feature of scary-strange flicks for a lucky $13. Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a new print (7pm), Inception (9:30) and Halloween III: Season of the Witch. (12am). 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Play Fair @ GLBT History Museum Play Fair! The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Make Sex Safer, an exhibit of safe sex promotional efforts. Also, For Love and Community: Queer Asian Pacific Islanders Take Action 1960-1990s, an exhibit organized by queer and transgender Asian Pacific Islanders. MonSat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistorymuseum.org

Richard III @ Live Oak Theatre, Berkeley Shakespeare’s drama about an evil king gets a production by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. $12-$15. Fri & Sat 8pm. Thru Nov 17. (510) 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org

FREE!LOVE!TOOL!BOX!, the former Bay Area artist’s new exhibit of conceptual and assembled found-object, personal installations and artworks, each with queer themes, including a DJ booth with his own large record collection; and Nathalie Djurberg’s amazing colorful creature sculptures. $12$15. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 979-2787. www.ybca.org

Off the Beaten Path @ Harvey Milk Photography Center Group exhibit of visually compelling photos of San Francisco’s well- and least-known parks. McLaren Lodge, 501 Stanyan St. at Fell. Photos also on exhibit at the Harvey Milk Center (50 Scott St.) and the Parks Emergency Aid Station (811 Stanyan St.). Thru Nov. 30. 554-8919. www.harveymilkphotocenter.org

Phantoms of Asia @ Asian Art Museum Exhibit of bold contemporary art with perspectives on life, death, nature and other themes. $12-$15. 200 Larkin St. 581-3500. www.asianart.org

SF Hiking Club @ Mt. Diablo Eagle Peak Join GLBT hikers for an 8-mile hike along Mitchell Canyon Trail to Eagle Peak. Shade is rare, and the openness affords wonderful views throughout the hike. Bring hat, layers, sunscreen, sturdy boots, water, lunch. Carpool meets at 9:00 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. 596-1304. Also Nov 4 at Tilden Park in the East Bay info: (510) 342-2623. www.sfhiking.com

The Sound of Music @ Julia Morgan Theatre, Berkeley Rogers & Hammerstein’s classic musical

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Out&About >>

November 1-7, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

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

Tue 6>> The Drag Show @ Various Channels Stu Smith’s weekly LGBT variety show features local talents, and not just drag artistes. Channels 29 & 76 on Comcast; 99 on AT&T and 30 on Astound. www.thedragshow.org

Greg Gandy @ John Pence Gallery Exhibit of stunning realist landscapes of San Francisco and other cities, created by the local painter. Mon-Fri 10am-6pm. Sat 10am5pm. 750 Post St. 441-1138. www.johnpence.com

Fri 2

Jim Caruso’s Cast Party @ The Rrazz Room

A Liar’s Autobiography @ Sundance Kabuki

Musical comedy variety show. $30. 8pm. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman, the gay member of the British TV & film comedy ensemble, is commemorated with a wacky 3-D movie animated by more than a dozen different studios, with voiceovers by (not-dead) Pythoners. Various times. $10-$15. 1881 Post St. 346-3243. www.liarsautobiography.com www.sundancecinemas.com

about the Von Trapp family, and their Austrian struggle with a new nanny, and Nazis, gets a local production. $17-$35. Thu-Sat 7pm. Also Sat 2pm. Sun 12pm, 5pm. Thru Dec 2. 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 845-8542. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org

Strindberg Cycle @ Exit Theater Cutting Ball Theater performs August Stringberg chamber plays in repertory; The Ghost Sonata, The Pelican and The Black Glove, and Storm and Burned House. $10-$75. Thu 7:30pm, Fri & Sat 8pm & 2pm. Sun 5pm. Thru Nov. 18. 277 Taylor St. 525-1205. www.cuttingball.com

Women 我們 @ Chinese Cultural Center Exhibit of video works, installation art, photography, sculpture, and more by a diverse array of LGBTQ artists including Mu Xi, Yang Meiyan, He Chengyao, and other emerging artists based in China as well as five U.S.based artists, among them Man Yee Lam and Stella Zhang. Tue-Sat 10am-4pm. Thru Dec. 15. 750 Kearny St., 3rd floor (inside the Hilton Hotel). 986-1822. www.c-c-c.org

Sun 4>> Carly Ozard @ The Rrazz Room Former local songstress returns for two shows at the the intimate cabaret club. $20. 2-drink min. 4pm. Also Nov 5, 8pm. Nikko Hotel, 222 Mason St at O’Farrell. (866) 4683399. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Hollywood to Dollywood, Gayby @ Castro Theatre Double feature of the documentary about

gay twin Dolly Parton fans (3:30, 7pm), and the comedy about a straight woman and a gay man having a baby together (5:10, 8:40). $11. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Jean-Yves Thibaudet @ Herbst Theatre World-renowned pianist (who happens to be openly gay) performs an all-Debussy concert to honor the composer’s 150th birthday. $39-$75. 7pm. 402 Van Ness Ave. 392-2545. www.sfperformances.org

SF Hiking Club @ Coastal Trail Joing LGBT hikers on an 11-mile trek from the ferry Building to Crissy Field, and Lands End. Meet 10am at Ferry Bldg. 852-0875. www.sfhiking.com

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

Mon 5>> 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

Pinups & Show Ponies @ Sofa Lounge Shakey Gibson’s new weekly revue, with jazz sirens, burlesque beauties and drag follies. 9:30pm no cover. 139 8th St. at Minna, (below Bossa Nova). www.facebook.com/SofaSF

Wed 7>> Art With Elders @ City Hall Large group exhibit of works by 90 artists in 30+ local arts programs, all seniors with a lengthy life perspective. Thru Jan. 4. Reg hours Mon-Fri 8am-8pm. Ground floor, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place. www.sfgov.org

Bobby Caldwell @ The Rrazz Room Veteran vocalist performs jazz, pop and R&B classics. $45-$47.50. 8pm. Nov 8, 8pm. Nov 9 & 10, 7pm & 9:30pm. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Jet Black Pearl @ The Marsh Berkeley Cabaret Satirical comic accordion-playing songstress performs her show Sex, Slugs & Accordion, Wed nights, weekly thru Nov 14. $10. 8pm. 2120 Allston Way, near Shattuck. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

The News @ SOMArts Cultural Center Queer-themed showcase of performance (first Tuesdays of each month), with Nic Alea, Suwon Cho, Dean Disaster, Jenalee Harmon, Vain Hein, Erin Malley, Shaunna Vella, Kolmel WithLove, Dr. Zebrovski. $5. 7:30pm. 934 Brannan St. www.somarts.org

Thu 8>> Dudley Saunders @ Casa Sanchez Enjoy dinner and/or drinks as the gay folkrock singer performs music from his fourth album, Monsters. Free. 8pm. 2778 24th St. 282-2402. www.reverbnation.com/dudleysaunders www.casasanchezfood.com

Laughing Stock Comedy Show @ 4N5 Anthony Sandoval, Charlie Ballard, Kollin Holtz, John Hoogasian and Hector Rodriguez offer diversely witty comic acts. $5. 7pm. Gallery/Bar 4N5, 863 Mission St. 522-2440. galiara.com

The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League @ Contemp. Jewish Museum Group exhibition of fascinating photos from 1936-1951 taken by members of the progressive collective that documented the eras of postwar struggles, McCarthy blacklists, and urban life. Other exhibits ongoing. Free (members)-$12. Thu-Tue 11am-5pm (Thu 1pm-8pm) 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Transgender Film Festival @ CounterPulse 11th annual trans film fest, with live dance, theatre and music opening night (Sean Dorsey Dance, Shawna Virago, Eli Conley and more), then short films thru Sunday. $12-$15. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Nov 11. 1310 Mission St. at 9th. www.sftff.org

To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com. Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication.

Thu 1 The Lion King @ Orpheum Theatre Disney’s long-running musical (and the highest grossing Broadway show in history) based on the animated film makes a return to the Bay Area. $32.50-$150. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm, Sun 1pm. (closed or different times for some holidays). Thru Jan. 13, 2013. (888) 746-1799. www.shnsf.com

ebar.com

<< Leather+

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 1-7, 2012

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Sniff! begins by Scott Brogan

or all you pups/dogs/wolves and Handlers/Trainers of all genders, Brue dog has created Sniff!, a new, all-gender puppy park event. Brue dog came up with the idea as a way to get the female pups/dogs/ wolves and Handlers/Trainers together with the males so everyone can join in the fun, and the females can experience the fun and bonding that the males have experienced over the past several years at the SF Puppy Parks that he’s been hosting. Per the press release, Sniff! will be held on Sun., Nov. 11 from 1-5 p.m. at the Mr. S Playspace located at 385A 8th St. in San Francisco, just above the store. This is an open event for those who are into the human canine head-space scene. Sniff! was specifically created so that both newbies and experienced female and male players (ages 18+) have a place where they can romp, socialize and learn about the puppy lifestyle in a safe, non-bar environment. Owned, collared or stray pups/dogs/wolves and pet-deprived Handlers/Trainers are welcome. Visit the events calendar page on either Facebook or FetLife for more information. If you identify as a pup/dog/wolf or a Handler/Trainer, or you simply want to find out what it’s about, I urge you to go. If anything, you’ll have a lot of fun. Robert Brooks is Mr. Bolt Leather 2013: On Oct. 27, The Bolt in Sacramento featured their one and only annual Mr. Bolt Leather contest. For those of you who don’t know, and maybe as a reminder to others, The Bolt has a long history of being a sort of “gateway drug” into the leather community/lifestyle in Sacramento and the greater Northern Central California region. The Bolt is always a fun, rollicking watering hole where anyone is welcome and everyone can meet the friendly people of Sacramento. Every time I go, I never fail to have a good time.

Rich Stadtmiller

Miguel Rubio gives his step-down speech at the Mr. Bolt Leather 2013 contest in Sacramento on Oct. 27.

The Mr. Bolt Leather fraternity also has a long tradition, traditionally being some of the best titleholders around. They’re outgoing, energetic, and they almost always stick around long after their title years, continuing their contributions to their community. Mr. Bolt Leather 2012 Miguel Rubio was one of the stellar Mr. Bolts

of all time. He seemed to be everywhere, flashing that dazzling smile and making everyone succumb to his charms – as if we resisted. I’m so happy for him and Sacramento, and proud, too. Not because I had anything to do with it, but proud that our great state of California continues to produce such amazing titleholders. Thank you, Miguel, for being a top example of what a titleholder should be, and should do See page 25 >>

Coming up in leather and kink Thu., Nov. 1: All Day Happy Hour at Kok Bar (1225 Folsom). Lots of drink specials. 5 p.m.-close. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sunday at 440 Castro. 4-10 p.m. Go to: www.the440.com.

Thu., Nov. 1: Underwear Night at The Powerhouse (1347 Folsom). Strip down for drink specials. 10 p.m.-close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Sun., Nov. 4: Squealing Sundays at The Powerhouse with Gehno Aviane & Dutch-Boy. “Pin the cock on the star” contest at 10 p.m. 6 p.m.-close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Fri., Nov. 2: Pants Off Fridays at Kok Bar. Take your pants off for drink specials! Clothes check available. 9 p.m.-close. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sun., Nov. 4: Swap It Out! community exchange for women’s clothing & Accessories at the SF Citadel. 1-4 p.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Fri., Nov. 2: Michael Brandon presents Fetish Fridays at The Edge (18th & Collingwood). 9 p.m.-close. Go to: www.edgesf.com.

Sun., Nov. 4: SF Submissive Safe Space at the SF Citadel (181 Eddy). 6:30 p.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Fri., Nov. 2: Truck Wash at Truck (1900 Folsom). 10 p.m.-close. Live shower boys, drink specials! Go to: www.trucksf.com. Sat.-Sun., Nov. 3-4: Richard Bolingbroke’s Open Studio at Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard. Featuring drawings, monotypes, collages. 11a.m.-5 p.m. each day. Check it out on Facebook.

Mon., Nov. 5: Trivia Night with host Casey Ley at Truck. 8 p.m. Go to: www.trucksf.com. Tue., Nov. 6: Safeword: 12-Step Kink Recovery Group at the SF Citadel. 6:30 p.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org. Tue., Nov. 6: The Art of Fetish Worship presented by Liliane Hunt at the SF Citadel. 7 p.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Sat., Nov. 3: Leather Happy Hour & Beer Bust at Kok Bar. 5-9 p.m. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Tue., Nov. 6: Ink & Metal at The Powerhouse. 9 p.m.-close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Sat., Nov. 3: Boot Lickin’ at the Powerhouse. 10 p.m.-close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Tue., Nov. 6: Tony’s Tipsy Tuesdays at Kok Bar. 5-9 p.m. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sat., Nov. 3: Stallion Saturdays at Rebel Bar (1760 Market). Revolving DJs, afterhours fun! 9 p.m.-4 a.m. Go to: www.stallionsaturdays.com.

Wed., Nov. 7: Naked Buddies at Blow Buddies (933 Harrison), a male-only club. Doors open 8 p.m.12 a.m. Play till late. Go to: www.blowbuddies.com.

Sat., Nov. 3: Weekly Pansexual Event at the SF Citadel (181 Eddy). 8 p.m.-1 a.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Wed., Nov. 7: Nipple Play at The Powerhouse. 10 p.m.-close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Sat., Nov. 3: All Beef Saturday Nights at The Lone Star (1354 Harrison). 9 p.m.-close. Go to: www.facebook.com/lonestarsf.

Wed., Nov. 7: Wolf! Night at the Baths at The Watergarden (1010 Alameda, San Jose) for furry men on the prowl. Lockers half-off. 4 p.m.-1 a.m. Go to: www.thewatergarden.com.

Sun., Nov. 4: Truck Bust Sundays at Truck. $1 beer bust. 4-8 p.m. Go to: www.trucksf.com. Sun., Nov. 4: Castro Bear presents Sunday Furry

Wed., Nov. 7: Dominant Discussion Group at the SF Citadel. 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 7. $15 donation. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

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Karrnal >>

November 1-7, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Bugging out by John F. Karr

s the blow-job as we know it doomed? Excuse me for barreling in with bad news. Later on there’s something so felicitous you’ll need a sedative. But I’ve got to talk about the article by Jerome Groopman called “Sex and the Superbug” that appeared in the October 1st New Yorker. It may rock your world. It’s scary and, I think, required reading for anyone who, like myself, lives or merely longs to put a cock in his mouth. And that’s just about all of us, huh? The article includes lots of gonorrheal history – and here I quote from The New Yorker. “Gonorrhea’s been recognized since antiquity. The second-century physician Galen, mistaking pus for semen, derived the name from the Greek words gonos (‘seed’) and rhoia (‘flow’). Cures ranged from the absurd to the excruciating. The historian Allan Brandt describes a cure proposed by one physician for chrodee, a complication of gonorrhea that causes the head of the penis to curve downward. The affected member, the physician wrote, should be placed ‘with the curve upward on a table and struck a violent blow with a book – and so flattening it.’” I’m pretty much flattened by the current news. Since the invention of antibiotics, gonorrhea has been considered curable, even as the microbe accommodated itself to five successive generations of antibiotics. The sixth and last is becoming resistant to a gonorrhea microbe now being called a “Superbug.” It has no cure. Untreated, gonorrhea in men can lead to scarring of the urethra, and, eventually, to a painful condition of the testicles that can result in sterility. The microbe enters the bloodstream, infecting the joints, the skin, the heart valves, and even the brain; it also increases one’s susceptibility to HIV. And you may not even know you have it – 90% of throat infections produce no symptoms whatsoever. The World Health Organization advises that “the primary hope for

A Special Feature indeed: gilded god Joe Manganiello in a screengrab of Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike on Blu-ray.

stemming the expected epidemic of gonorrhea lies in persuading people to alter their behavior.” That means persuading us to suck a cock only when it’s inside a condom. Health experts consider that a challenge. Sure they do. Could you make that accommodation? It was made once before, back in 1983, when we were told that either cocksucking or semen ingestion could cause AIDS. Since I’m not a condom sucker, for some years I simply gave up cocksucking. With my dedication to the art, you know that wasn’t easy. And here we are again, even more irrevocably facing a condom-covered world. What will I do? What will you do? What will porn do? “Sex and the Superbug” gives us a momentary reprieve. Time to get our act together. “No cases have yet been reported in the U.S., but resistant gonorrhea is likely to arrive and spread long before physicians and the CDC recognize it. Some publichealth officials predict that in five to eight years the superbug will be widespread.” Alright. Here’s the good news I promised. The Special Features on the Magic Mike Blu-ray disk (which are available only on that two-disc set) deliver the Extended Dance Sequences as promised. It’s disappointing that there are only three, and none of them are of Channing Tatum. You get an almost groovy routine from Alex Rodriguez, and a

cute routine from cute Matt Bomer. He’s sorta insubstantial, so his choreographer whipped up something he could pull off. Which won’t have you pullin’ anything. But Joe Manganiello’s dance will. The movie shows only 12 seconds of it; here we get all three-plus minutes. He’s gilded gold, head to foot, and naked except for a Tom of Finland-sized codpiece that testifies what’s inside is all Tom of Finland, too. Joe is revealed as a living statue, treating us to a succession of demigod poses. Manganiello told an interviewer that director Steven Soderbergh was only going to film that short order of muscle poses. But he didn’t yell “Cut!” So Manganiello just kept going, into a ass-grinding, crotchpoppin’ dance routine that’s drooliscious. He just mauls the roomful of women, clambering atop tables to grind his crotch in appreciative faces. And the thing is, Manganiello doesn’t only have the body to pull off the muscle show, he’s got the bravado to pull off the bumpn-grind dance routine. Oh kids, it’s super-crotchy, balls-to-the-wall ballsy – and it was all improvised. “I was possessed!” Manganiello said. It’s a major thrill, three minutes that alone are definitely worth the price of admission. And by the way, you can troll the Web for days and you won’t find a pic of Manganiello’s gilded god. The screengrab I took is my gift. You won’t get gonorrhea from looking at that bounteous basket.▼

Leather +

From page 24

with his title. Nothing lasts forever, and Rubio passed the title on to the new Mr. Bolt 2013, Robert Brooks. First runner-up was Jason Huff-Cook. The other contestants were Juan Karlos Cruz and Tony Southworth. The judges were International Mr. Leather 2012 Woody Woodruf, Leland Carina, Jake Anderson, “Charlie,” and Thomas Pupp. International Mr. Bootblack 2012 was the special guest and, naturally, boot blacker for the night. Congratulations, Robert! More sex addiction: Well, not really. I just like putting “sex addiction” in boldface. The Leathermen’s Discussion Group’s meeting last Oct. 24 featured guest speaker David Ley, Ph.D., author of The Myth of Sex Addiction. Through the magic of the Internet, I was able to attend via the online live feed. The discussion was fantastic. It wasn’t merely about “what’s sex addiction, and does it exist?” The discussion also addressed (among other wonderful topics) the issue of society’s stigmatization of male sexuality, especially gay sex. For example: Many gay kids, especially males, grow up with conflicting feelings about their sexuality. Society makes it seem

Rich Stadtmiller

Mr. Bolt 2013 contestants Tony Southworth, Juan Karlos Crus, 1st runner-up Jason Huff-Cook and winner Robert Brooks.

“bad” or “dirty” (or any other litany of negative adjectives). Needless to say, this creates incredible and unnecessary angst that follows many of us throughout our lives, sometimes with disastrous results. I missed a bit of it due to connection issues inherent with live streaming, but no worries! The night’s program is still available online. Go to: www. ustream.tv/recorded/26413776 to check it out. I plan to read his book now that I’ve seen the discussion – you should, too! Great, thoughtprovoking stuff. For more about the

Leathermen’s Discussion Group, go to: www.sfldg.org. The Eagle revs up: Great news for all the SF Eagle fans: The bar’s General Manager Ron Hennis sent out an e-mail explaining that he’s putting the calendar together for 2013. This means that if you want to have an event at the bar, be sure to let him know. Sooner rather than later, as the prime spots fill up pretty fast. You can contact him at Ron@ sf-eagle.com. It’s been a long road over the past 1 1/2 years, let’s make it worth it!▼

<< Books

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 1-7, 2012

East Bay story by Tim Pfaff

aybe Brokeland is local vernacular for the city-crossing strip of street that lends its name to the title of Michael Chabon’s extraordinary new novel, Telegraph Avenue (Harper). But on the evidence of the linguistic ping throughout the novel, it’s more likely Chabon’s keen ear for the sound Berkeley and Oakland make when they collide. For a soundbite of that language, here’s Chabon on “the minor kingdom of Brokeland, California”: “Forty-first was all sky and wires and broken rooflines and, like a lot of streets that had been cut in two by the construction of the Grove-Shafter Freeway, after all these years it still had a dazed feel, a man who had taken a blow to the head staggering hatless down from Telegraph, face-planting at the overpass.” Chabon’s pointillist depiction of his setting will add to the fun for readers who know the East Bay (a region he slyly wagers might have been named by people who spoke Pig Latin). Simi-

larly, he rolls out an amazing gamut of its denizens, many with post-Dickensian names, including a disabled man called “the Stephen Hawking guy” and, at a posh Berkeley fundraiser, a state senator named Barack Obama (it’s 2004). In their dizzying midst are six characters you’ll think about till you die. The Big Bang that produced this novel spawned a universe so roomy that one of its main venues is a blimp – “the big black visual pun on centuries of white anatomical anxiety.” But its center space is Brokeland Records, an endangered vintage vinyl store owned by Archy Stallings, a globular black man, and Nat Jaffe, a skinny Jew, who would be the book’s odd couple were they not married to, respectively, Gwen Shanks and Aviva Roth-Jaffe, partners in a midwifery enterprise, Berkeley Birth Partners. The lurking threat to the men’s business is a proposed megastore, the Dogpile Thang, dream child of Gibson Goode, a football star now become the fifth-richest black man in America. Archy “was tired of being a holdout, a sole survi-

Men in motion by Jim Piechota Straight Guys: Gay Erotic Fantasies, edited by Shane Allison Wild Boys: Gay Erotic Fiction, edited by Richard Labonte (both Cleis Press, $15.95)

or those who found this past summer to be a particularly dry one, Berkeley-based Cleis Press is once again at your service, offering up two new hot and heavy, gay-male-oriented erotic story collections sure to appeal to a wide variety of fantasies and fetishes. Veteran erotic story editor Shane Allison, whose bio includes the private admission that he’s currently “knocking boots” with a straight friend, presents Straight Guys, 17 steamy tales all about what could happen when gay men find themselves in precarious positions in a straight man’s bedroom. Several writers included in the collection are hardly strangers to the Cleis Press erotic library. In “Redneck Revision,” popular writer Jeff Mann offers a lyrical, sexy Southern story that incorporates “every element of fetish I cherish: beards, body hair, bondage, gags, ass-fucking, abduction.” Talented writer Rob Rosen’s addictive “Gray Area” finds a corporate employee pining away for a hottie sales rep at the Hotel Grand who ends up giving him a personal tour of so much more than the executive suite. Elsewhere, standouts include Las Vegas blackjack dealer Zeke Mangold’s highly creative erotic fantasy about a death-rock band lead vocalist and a very devoted groupie; San Diego’s Bearmuffin’s sporty football story about a huge-hung tackle named Bubba, which is wonderfully light on plot and appropriately heavy on horny; Gregory L. Norris’ take on a wild and raunchy cab ride; and editor Allison’s own story, “On a Plane,” which gives the tempting taboo sexuality of The Mile-High Club new meaning. Overall, the collection is a strong one and worthy of reconstituting the remnants of a summer that, for some, may have ended up consisting of lots of work and no play. Canadian writer Richard Labonte lends his years of expertise editing erotic anthologies to his latest group, Wild Boys. The outlaws and outcasts that populate these pages are just edgy enough to appeal to readers look-

ing for a little something dirtier and rougher around the edges than what classic erotic fiction has to offer. Tapped again to produce a story of great skill and sexuality is novelist and poet Jeff Mann, whose “Satyr” story warns of the dangers of picking up hitchhikers, yet this kind of danger is something extra special and actually incorporates a satisfying ending. Erotic horror writer Daniel W. Kelly takes the idea of some horny boys’ three-way to new heights in “Sometimes Sex Just – Happens”; seducing

vor, the last coconut hanging on the last palm tree on the last little atoll in the pathway of late-modern capitalism, waiting to be hammered flat.” Nat for years “had been on and off various medications whose names sounded like the code names of sorceresses or ninja assassins. Disastrous from the first dose or disappointing in the long run, each wore out its welcome in [his] bloodstream without ever managing to lay an insulating glove on the glowing wire inside him.” Their wives are as vividly characterized. Surprisingly, it is their business partnership that unwinds before their husbands’ comes unglued. Chabon regulars will immediately recognize the style – and that the author keeps perfecting it. You don’t turn a page without encountering a wonder of language, some so zesty you have to close the book between your thumbs to hold back tears. But there isn’t a turn of phrase or a single, galloping sentence that does not advance the story, told by a writer with a gift for plot redolent of I.B. Singer’s. This time the music of Chabon’s nimble prose is often about music – a notoriously difficult thing to write about – most of it the jazz funk of the genre-melding 1970s. It’s startlingly like the music in Treme, so seamlessly integrated into the story that neither fully exists without the other. Much the same can be said of the racial mingling among the characters, humanly imperfect but divinely integrated. The writing itself works musically. The five sections are less like the

movements of a symphony – though each has its own key and time signature – than, as the book’s cover depicts, the tracks on an LP. It’s The Black and White Album, and it advances the novel as much as the Beatles’ set did rock. In addition to writing our young decade’s most bewitching entertainment, Chabon, a self-avowed lover of Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, lets his verbal prestidigitation push at the novel’s form. Chapter 3, a 12-page sentence, is an ecstatic riff. Chabon’s facility is like Gwen’s when assisting births: “virtuoso hands, freaky, fluid as a couple of tidepool dwellers.” Perhaps the memorysearing scene of Gwen in childbirth herself hints at the agonies of the writing process for Chabon, but his posture is much more that of a magician or clown. The two other characters as major as the adult couples are Julie, Nat and Aviva’s 14-year-old son, and Titus Joyner, a boy Archy fathered 14 years earlier and never acknowledged,

▼

whose appearance out of seeming nowhere is as welcome as the ghost’s in Don Giovanni, save that Julie promptly falls in love with him. The pair, such as they are, appears throughout Telegraph Avenue, literally first page to last, and theirs is anything but a subplot. In a novel with much to observe about sex, the young men’s is the only sex we observe, once and then a second time in immediate aftermath. Any gay man who doesn’t resonate with every syllable of those scenes had a sheltered upbringing. The trials of lineage even more than race drive this novel. Early on we read of Nat and Julie’s relationship, “Recently and unexpectedly, the fiberoptic cable between the continents of Father and Son had been severed by the barb of some mysterious dragging anchor.” The relational broken staircase connecting Archy, Archy’s father Luther (a whole fable unto himself), Titus, and Archy’s newborn son, Clark (whom Nat delivers), is continually collapsing under them. No one, least of all Titus, would call him and Julie lovers, yet theirs is the relationship that seems to have the most, if not hope, possibility, and if not possibility, play in the line. They wear the freedom of friendship after their parents have come to chafe at its constraints. What they have accepts, and morphs, rather than ends. In the novel’s penultimate page, an Archy newly cemented into his father-son nexus like an accident victim into a body cast wonders at Titus’ conception of the boys’ new bond, a scenario in which Julie plays a girl, Dezire. Archy, “somewhere between admiration and disdain,” says, “That’s how you’re friends now. In a game. With him being a girl and you being, what’s it?” “Black Answer.” “Right. Dezire and Black Answer, hanging out in downtown Wakanda.” “No,” replies Titus, “but mostly we meet up in the Blue Area of the Moon. That’s pretty much the only place.”▼

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28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 1-7, 2012

▼

Caucasian wilderness hike by David Lamble

n the new film from Russian émigré director Julia Loktev The Loneliest Planet, a soon-to-be married couple (Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg) are on a pre-honeymoon hike through an undeveloped patch of Georgia’s Caucasus Mountains. It’s an area of craggy rocks and swampy grassland that appears unpopulated and utterly desolate, an impression that soon proves completely and dangerously erroneous. Alex and Nica spend nearly the first half of their time with us just larking about: using an abandoned Georgian busyard as a 20-something jungle gym, finishing each other’s sentences, breaking up the hypnotic ennui of the hike by conjugating irregular Spanish verbs, or enduring their local guide Dato’s punchline-garbled Chinese castration joke. Suddenly their reverie is interrupted by three locals: a bearded, rifletoting hunter and two impatient boys. Something then happens so quickly that you can easily miss it – the way the Giants’ Tim Lincecum can abruptly end an inning with a devastating splitter, or the way one character in a twocharacter play can mumble a line in a barely audible stage whisper that alters everything that follows. If you miss this moment, which I will not spoil further, you might as well ask for your money back, because nothing that follows will make any sense. Although the intruders are similar to Georgia’s version of hillbillies, the makers of The Loneliest Planet are not updating the American Georgia-

Radical Camera

From page 20

sualty of McCarthy-era witch-hunts and paranoia. In a plaintive letter to HUAC displayed here, the League, which had been infiltrated by an FBI informant, made a cogent, reasoned appeal to the fanatics who condemned them as a subversive, Communist front organization. There’s colorful background material to absorb, but the real meat of the show is its penetrating images by a collection of photography allstars that include Berenice Abbott,

Stage Left

From page 17

atre, and Coyote ended up acting in a series of Sam Shepard premieres. And soon Bill Ball was moving his Pittsburgh-based American Conservatory Theater to San Francisco. Ball was something of a creative maniac, and perhaps the best archival film clip is a scene from his production of The Taming of the Shrew. Marc Singer, as the Kate-taming Petruchio, expounds on gender issues as he maneuvers Fredi Olster’s Katherina around his body as if she were a snake being charmed. “Let’s take care of the roots as well as the fruit,” Ball says in a period interview as he explains his nurturing concept of theater. His bold visions ran afoul of financial realities that led to his high-profile downfall and eventual suicide. Ed Hastings, his successor as ACT’s artistic director, has forlorn memories in one of his last interviews before his death in 2011. “We were no longer the cutest girl in town,” he says. “We were just an old hag who was staggering around trying to get another drink someplace.” But ACT’s fortunes were revived to such an extent that it became a symbol of the dreaded establishment. “A lot of theaters sprung up in opposition to ACT,” former SF Chronicle theater critic Bernie Weiner says, and

Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg are on a pre-honeymoon hike through Georgia’s Caucasus Mountains in director Julia Loktev’s The Loneliest Planet.

set Deliverance. Drawing on the short story “Expensive Trips Nowhere” from the collection God Lives in St. Petersburg by Tom Bissell, Julia Loktev and her sublime cast have constructed a wilderness parable comparable to Kelly Reichardt’s 1845-set wagontrain saga Meek’s Cutoff, with similar emotional sucker-punches. In both films, attractive but horribly naïve characters are tramping through a most dangerous slice of untamed wilderness with a thoroughly unreliable guide. Just as it took me years to unravel

the meaning behind my own private inscrutable moments, The Loneliest Planet’s relationship epiphanies may elude you for years. Is this suddenly dangerous camping trip a dealbreaker for a couple who may never trust each other again? For a while, Nica seems literally allergic to Alex’s touch. Losing her footing in a stream, she turns to Dato (the low-key Bidzina Gujabidze) for the protection she once sought from her boyfriend. A late-night moment around a campfire reveals how isolated, vulnerable and totally alone each of the travelers feels.

Reading Gael

Aaron Siskind, Weegee and Lisette Model. One of the most innovative and daring of the League’s members, Model, who mentored Diane Arbus, was magnetized by people on the fringes whom she memorialized in unsettling portraits she hoped would attain a life of their own, such as “Little Man, Lower East Side” (c. 1940), where a defeated, unshaven man of short stature in a rumpled hat and overcoat pauses to rest from unknown miseries. “Albert-Alberta” (c.1945), a gender-bending picture of a male burlesque performer at Hubert’s 42nd St. Flea Circus in Times

Square, is closer to the sober, unvarnished approach to transgressive imagery readily associated with the artist. A man divided, he’s posed in front of flowery drapery, wearing makeup, a black fishnet bra stretched over one nipple, a man’s sock and shoe on one foot, an open-toed high heel on the other with an ankle bracelet on his hairy leg. With camera at the ready, Weegee was “Johnny-on-the-spot” wherever carnage could be found. He gained a well-deserved reputation as a master of the sensational crime scene, whether it was New York patrol-

men fresh from rescuing a baby, or a bloody victim wounded in a bar fight with a rival for the woman whose lap he found himself in at the bitter end. Weegee aka Arthur Fellig is also represented by a romantic nighttime vision of the “Empire State Building” (1945) lit up like a rocket ship, along with several other compelling pictures and a copy of Naked City, a book for which he provided both photos and text. In 1939, Paul Strand, an accomplished professional before he became part of the League, composed a macabre evocation of horror, evil and mass murder rolled into a

another epoch was finding its place on the scene. The SF Mime Troupe, the Pickle Family Circus, the improv Blake Street Hawkeyes, the site-specific Snake Theatre, the performance-art extravaganzas by George Coates, Theatre Rhinoceros, the Cockettes, and the Angels of Light are recognized in the film with vintage clips and contemporary interviews. The short-lived Gay Men’s Theatre Collective and its production of Crimes Against Nature gets welcome acknowledgement. And then AIDS begat its own epoch, with the deaths of many artists and their audiences. Tony Kushner’s Angels in America provided a theatrical exclamation point with its 1991 premiere at SF’s Eureka Theatre. In some ways, that’s the end of the story as told by Stage Left. Brad Erickson of Theatre Bay Area does point out that his organization represents 420 member companies, but if the present-day epoch has a zeitgeist, we can’t yet see it. We naturally want to believe San Francisco still has that magic that powered so much creativity, as recalled by a collection of notable talking heads who tap into their memories. Check back in 15 years, and I may have some more wisdom on the subject. Or watch Stage Left on your TV set and draw your own conclusions.

I’ll admit I could spend two blissful hours observing actor Gael Garcia Bernal (or his childhood buddy, actor Diego Luna) do almost anything: stack a month’s supply of bathroom tissue near my commode, slurp a carton of Chinese noodles, read from the phonebook in any of his five languages. To watch Bernal in an erotic moment is like observing an artist who is part Chaplin, part Valentino, maybe even part Freddy Krueger. The art, the sweaty passion and the horror just below

the surface inherent in “ravishing” another human are always artistically justified in Bernal’s performances. Yet there lingers more than a hint of malevolence, best illustrated in one of his least appreciated performances, that in The King, where his prodigal son character seduces and impregnates his half-sister, and later murders and religiously washes the body of his half-brother. In The Loneliest Planet, Bernal’s Alex begins as a beatific everyman who plays well with others, and ends as a haunted soul, a living illustration of psychobabble tomes on the male animal as an endangered species. Redhead Hani Furstenberg, previously seen in Israel director Eytan Fox’s queer army-buddy drama Yossi and Jagger, here channels the rebel, quirky-girl energy of a young person forever postponing the perplexing burdens of womanhood. It’s an emotional arc that has previously been the province of Six Feet Under’s Lauren Ambrose. Her Nica may forgive Alex the temporary suspension of his manhood, but one senses that this perceived betrayal will lurk for many years as either a spur or a nagging obstacle to bedroom fulfillment. Bidzina Gujabidze brings a relaxed masculinity to his Dato that makes his campfire confession to Nica all the more satisfying and unsettling. If Public TV’s ubiquitous travel guide Rick Steves should ever invite me on a walking tour of Georgia’s hauntingly pretty mountains, I can now say without embarrassment, “Been there, done that.”▼ single photograph. His uncharacteristically explicit and powerful political image of a skeleton tied to a swastika recalls religious iconography of Jesus nailed to the cross. At a time of tectonic changes, the fervent desire of these photographers was that their images have meaning to the people who saw them. The group may have survived only 15 years, but they left a lasting impression on the medium they helped transform.▼ The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936-51, through Jan. 21, 2013. Info: www.thecjm.org

Bernard Weinerz

The San Francisco Mime Troupe gets prominent play in Stage Left, a documentary that looks at how Bay Area theater took shape over the past six decades.

‘Mormon’ lottery If you haven’t secured a ticket to the SF run of Book of Mormon, you are out of luck – almost. The SHN website prominently states that tickets are no longer available for the engagement, but then offers a couple of caveats. Additional tickets may be made available for sale,

and a regular check of shnsf.com is advised. And there will be a lottery prior to each performance during the Nov. 27-Dec. 30 run. A limited number of $25 tickets will be awarded to some of those who enter the lottery that begins two-and-a-half hours prior to each performance. Winning names will

be drawn two hours before the performance. A blogger for the Denver Post, where the musical played in August, offered a few tips. No need to arrive earlier than noted above; your chances of winning are not increased. Don’t be fazed by the length of the line to enter the lottery; it moves quickly. And be sure to bring your own pen.▼