October 11, 2012 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Danny Lyon

Halloween party in Oakland

The

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

Vol. 42 • No. 41 • October 11-17, 2012

Family images an issue in campaigns

by Matthew S. Bajko

Jane Philomen Cleland

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edding images depicting a happy heterosexual couple on their special day don’t normally come to mind as being problematic photos.

But when they are deployed as part of a political campaign, they can become suspect in the eyes of LGBT voters.

Some may question if the photo is meant to signal a hidden message, particularly if the candidate’s opponent is LGBT. At the very least it can be read as insensitive considering the ongoing struggle to win marriage rights for same-sex couples.

On the other hand, depicting one’s family, whether a spouse or children, is a time-tested way for candidates to introduce themselves to voters. It is an easy way to signal one’s ties to the community.

LGBT candidates can face their own doubled-edged sword regarding how to showcase See page 10 >>

Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, with his wife Eliana Lopez and their son Theo.

Jane Philomen Cleland

Shirtless at the fair W

arm, sunny weather made going shirtless at the Castro Street fair a no-brainer, as Roberto Martinez, left, and Matt Smith demonstrated while wading through the crowd. This year’s

fair, held Sunday, October 7, also had people in the buff, as the Castro debates the appropriateness of public nudity, as well as plenty of dancing and entertainment.

Sheriff wins job back

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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mbattled San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi won his job back after the Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 Tuesday night, October 9 to reinstate him.

See page 13 >>

BAY AREA REPORTER Candidates discuss election endorsements fixes for City College

by Seth Hemmelgarn 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 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

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

State Senate (East Bay) Dist. 9: Loni Hancock

California Propositions Vote YES on 30, 34, 36, 37, 40 Vote NO on 31, 32, 33, 35, 38, 39

State Assembly (Regional) Dist. 15: Nancy Skinner Dist. 18: Abel Guillen Dist. 24: Rich Gordon

Remember to vote on November 6!

Check back next week for Oakland City Council endorsements.

C

andidates running for the City College of San Francisco board agree on the school’s value to the community, but they have varying ideas on how to fix the community college’s problems as it faces the possibility of closing.

“City College is critical to the educational and career dreams of our students,” said candidate Rodrigo Santos. In August, Mayor Ed Lee appointed Santos to the board to serve out the remaining few months of Trustee Milton Marks III’s term, after Marks died due to a brain tumor.

“Today, due to fiscal irresponsibility and lack of real planning, City College is fighting for its life,” Santos, 54, said in response to a Bay Area Reporter questionnaire. “It is clear that City College needs leadership change across the board and, as trustee, I will create a new, more prosperous future for CCSF.” The community college, which has nine campuses and 86,000 students, may lose its accreditation due to 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 inad-

{ FIRST OF TWO SECTIONS }

Rick Gerharter

City College candidate Rafael Mandelman

equate administrative leadership.

Don Griffin, the college’s last chancellor, stepped down due to health issues; interim Chancellor Pamila Fisher, who was hired in May, is See page 12 >>

<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2012

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Jane Philomen Cleland

A Spark for TLC’s 10th anniversary T

he Transgender Law Center celebrated its 10th anniversary at “Spark! Ten Years of Igniting Change” Thursday, October 4 in the Green Room at the Veterans Memorial Building in San Francisco. Those who were honored included, from left, Anne Schaefer and Julie Hammel from Google, which received the Ally Award; Felicia Alvarado (a.k.a. Felicia Flames), who received the Vanguard Award; Emily Metcalfe from Google; TLC Executive Director Masen Davis; Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski, who received the Vanguard Award; and National Center for

Lesbian Rights Executive Director Kate Kendell, who received the Community Partner Award. Several hundred people attended the reception, including state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), District Attorney George Gascón, former Supervisor Bevan Dufty, and current Supervisors Scott Wiener and Christina Olague. During his remarks, Davis paid tribute to Sylvia Guerrero, the mother of slain trans teenager Gwen Araujo, who was murdered 10 years ago. Guerrero could not attend but expressed that people must continue fighting against anti-trans violence, Davis said.

Man pleads not guilty to murdering partner

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

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San Francisco man pleaded not guilty last week to murdering his partner of almost 20 years.

Timothy Stewart, 48, has been charged in the death of Terry Rex Spray, 60. He entered his plea and denied an allegation of use of a deadly weapon in San Francisco Superior Court Friday, October 5.

Stewart, whom some records

indicate is 51, allegedly assaulted Spray, known as Rex, with a blunt object. Officials say Spray was found unconscious, not breathing, and bleeding in the garage of the couple’s apartment building at 1135 Ellis Street on August 3. He died September 18, and police arrested Stewart on September 24.

People who knew the couple said they didn’t know of problems between them, and at least two people who knew the men doubt that Stewart is responsible.

“If Tim is innocent, the last thing Rex would have wanted was for him to be incarcerated and enmeshed in the criminal justice system, and the evidence I’ve heard of doesn’t sound that convincing beyond a reasonable doubt to me,” Evan Mogan, who knew Spray for 25 years, said.

Mogan, 56, said Spray, who had worked for years as a nurse and was once a union president, seemed “fine” when they last spoke one to two weeks before the alleged assault.

“I really believe if he and Tim were having any problems, he would have shared it with me,” Mogan said.

“We talked about stuff like that. He and Tim, they didn’t have a volatile relationship.”

In an email, Stewart’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Danielle Harris said, “My client is grieving the loss of his longtime partner. He had nothing to do with the events that led to Rex Spray’s death and we look forward to proving in court that there is no evidence showing otherwise. Tim is as eager to understand what happened to Rex as anyone could be.” Harris declined a request to interview Stewart.

Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said, “We would not charge a case unless we had a good faith basis to believe we could prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.” He didn’t say what evidence prosecutors have, but he said the weapon was “a blunt instrument.”

Bastian said he couldn’t discuss the motive, “given that it’s an ongoing investigation.”

Shortly after the August assault, a San Francisco police spokesman said officers responding to the garage found a bleeding Spray, who hadn’t yet been publicly identified, between two vehicles in the garage.

Murder victim Terry Rex Spray

Soon after Stewart’s arrest, there was a closed gate covering the entrance to the apartment building’s garage, where Mogan said Spray’s car had previously been broken into. Mogan said that in the August assault, it didn’t appear Spray had been robbed. His wallet was with him, and his cell phone was in his apartment.

In a brief conversation shortly after Stewart’s arrest, police Sergeant Jon Kasper said it was possible Stewart and Spray were domestic partners, before indicating he didn’t have time to answer further questions. He didn’t respond to a subsequent interview request.

Long relationship Mogan said that Spray and Stewart met 19 to 20 years ago. He said they were registered domestic partners and married in 2004 after thenMayor Gavin Newsom ordered same-sex marriages to be allowed in the city. The information on their domestic partnership and marriage hasn’t been verified by the Bay Area Reporter.

Friends described seeing Spray in the hospital before he died.

Kimberly Blanck, 58, knew Spray for almost 25 years and indicated she’d last spoken with him a few months ago. The two had once worked together in in-patient psychiatry at San Francisco General Hospital. She said she didn’t know of any problems between Spray and Stewart.

See page 13 >>

Read more online at www.ebar.com

October 11-17, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2012

Volume 42, Number 41 October 11-17, 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

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Olague for D5 supervisor F

rom the moment Mayor Ed Lee appointed her to fill the remainder of Ross Mirkarimi’s term, Supervisor Christina Olague has traveled a difficult path and faces a tough race for a full term on the Board of Supervisors.

Olague has upset progressives and moderates alike by changing her mind on certain issues as she found her footing. She has had virtually no “honeymoon” on the board as she’s had to immediately raise money for her election campaign and fend off her challengers.

We are, however, extremely pleased with the courage she exhibited Tuesday night in voting to reinstate Sheriff Mirkarimi. Her vote, along with those by her colleagues (Supervisors John Avalos, David Campos, and Jane Kim), was a powerful statement against the mayoral abuse of power and the politicized nature of the case and reflects the unique make-up of District 5, which Mirkarimi represented for seven years on the Board of Supervisors and where he remains very popular.

Olague is our first choice for District 5 supervisor.

In a public statement, Olague said that she took a “very pragmatic approach to reviewing the charges and establishing my understanding of both the facts and the recommendation before us.”

“As a member of this board, I take very seriously the responsibility to represent the citizens of my district and of this city and to uphold the duties required of me as outlined by the charter,” she added. That said, after reviewing the case, she determined that “the removal of any elected official from office requires that the mayor supply evidence that demonstrates, with great certainty, that the charter prescribed definition of official misconduct was violated.” She said that she could not find Mirkarimi’s “actions were executed through his authority as a sheriff, and I will not be supporting a motion to sustain the charges.”

Politicians too often are more concerned with their next race than doing the right thing.

Olague’s vote Tuesday proved the opposite; she has likely upset a lot of people, including the mayor who appointed her and his powerful backers. But her action showed guts and resolve. It is a vivid example of how she will work to put her constituents first.

An out bi woman for most of her adult life and a person of color, 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

Rick Gerharter

District 5 Supervisor Christina Olague

seniors, supports the city’s new LGBT Senior Task Force, and was an organizer at the Senior Action Network.

Olague has experience in development and planning – she’s the former president of the Planning Commission – and would like to see more transparency from the Mayor’s Office of Housing, which currently controls the in-lieu fees paid by developers for affordable housing. She is a strong proponent of Openhouse’s planned housing development for LGBT seniors at 55 Laguna Street.

At the other end of the spectrum, a lot of young people are coming to the district and many in the Haight, like the Castro, are LGBT and there is no place for them to go. “I think we have to be more compassionate,” Olague said of homeless queer youth. “It’s not such a black and white issue.”

Olague is a political novice and that shows at times. When Olague met with us, she acknowledged that she could have spent more time trying to secure the endorsement of either Milk or Alice, the city’s two main LGBT Democratic clubs. That she received no recommendation from either club is troubling.

The race in District 5 is perhaps the toughest in the city this year. Olague cares about District 5 and has done her best to represent it.

Voters will ultimately make the decision, but Olague has a record of accomplishment and has been effective in the 10 months she has served.

Second choice, London Breed Among those candidates challenging the incumbent one stands out: London Breed is our

second choice in the race.

Breed is a straight ally and 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. “Now, I’m going to funerals of kids I grew up with,” she told us in an editorial board meeting. She also lost a sister to a drug overdose and has a brother in jail, so she knows first hand the human toll drugs and violence can take on a community.

We were very impressed with Breed in our meeting and she has a lot of good ideas. She is also determined. “I’m honest and not for sale,” she said when asked why she’s the better candidate for District 5, which also includes the Haight, Inner Sunset, and Alamo Square, where Breed attends Third Baptist Church.

For the last 10 years Breed has served as the executive director of the African American Art and Culture Complex, where she raised over $2.5 million to renovate the facilities. She said that she has a “great relationship” with the supervisors and can work with Mayor Ed Lee. She has served on two city commissions (and is currently on the Fire Commission), knows most of the department heads, and at one time served as an intern for Bevan Dufty. In short, she would hit the ground running.

On the issue of housing, Breed, a former redevelopment commissioner, maintains that developers should build the required affordable housing units simultaneously with the project and perhaps even within the development itself. “There is a lot of money sitting in [the Mayor’s Office of Housing] and housing is not sitting there,” she said. “My approach would be to build the affordable housing simultaneous with the development even if it’s not at the same place.”

She also supports the proposed California Pacific Medical Center hospital on Van Ness, but only if CPMC lives up to its obligation to renovate St. Luke’s Hospital. “They’ve got to do better with the nurses, particularly. The deal has to be a good deal for San Francisco because it’s a good deal for CPMC,” she said.

Regarding LGBT issues, Breed supports marriage equality, a question she said she gets asked by same-sex couples when she’s out campaigning. Her pastor, the Reverend Amos Brown, is one of the few African American pastors who have stepped up to support marriage equality. Leaders in the African American community need to be natural when speaking of their support, she said. “We have to instill respect and compassion to kids now,” she said.

“In my mind, that’s how I grew up. I’m not one who tolerates hate.”

Breed will be a powerful advocate for District 5 and the city. She understands San Francisco values and wants to help those in need.

“An opportunity – not a handout – is what we need,” she said.▼

LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad

Radulovich, Sweet for BART board T

BAY AREA REPORTER 395 Ninth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 415.861.5019 www.ebar.com

News Editor • news@ebar.com Arts Editor • arts@ebar.com Out & About listings • events@ebar.com Advertising • scott@ebar.com Letters • letters@ebar.com A division of Benro Enterprises, Inc. © 2012 Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation.

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wo BART districts that include all or part of San Francisco are on the ballot and we recommend incumbent directors Tom Radulovich in District 9 and Lynette Sweet in District 7.

Radulovich, who was first elected in 1996, is the BART board’s only out gay member, though that could change if Rebecca Saltzman, running in an East Bay district, is elected. A progressive, Radulovich has fought for police accountability on the board and reformed police training.

He pledges to strengthen BART’s commitment to civil rights, environmental justice, and diversity. He also wants to work toward renewing the aging BART system, improve frequency of trains, expand hours, and upgrade BART stations. He is executive director of Livable City, an organization that works to create transit and bike-friendly policies in San Francisco.

BART Director Tom Radulovich

BART Director Lynette Sweet

Sweet has served on the BART board since 2003 when she was appointed; she has gone on to win election in 2004 and 2008. Hers is the only BART district to span the bay and she has constituents in all three BART district counties: San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa.

A banker by profession, Sweet was involved

in the BART police department review committee that was established in the aftermath of the Oscar Grant shooting.

She has been an effective BART board member and is deserving of another term.

Both Radulovich and Sweet have been capable directors on the transit board and are deserving of re-election.▼

Get out and vote on Nov. 6!

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Letters >>

October 11-17, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Work outside the institution I hear much anger toward new Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, and fear over his attitude toward same-sex marriage, and queer rights [“LGBTs to protest Cordileone,” October 4]. The reality is the Roman Catholic Church is homophobic. It is the local churches where the change takes place. I am an independent Catholic priest because I take the words of Scripture at face value where Jesus tells us we cannot put new wine into old wine skins. Change only comes from outside. Rather then cry and scream it is best to move outside and be a witness. The new archbishop does have his good points: his stand on immigration and the death penalty, but he has not evolved in his attitude on same-sex marriage, so why not give him the respect for the good he does, and move on. Our time and efforts can be spent on our work outside the institution, creating a church that is free and open, rather then try to change that which will not be changed.

Father River Damien Sims San Francisco

Stop giving money to the church The new archbishop was consecrated Thursday on the Feast of St. Francis. The church and politics are identical twins; you cannot have one without the other.

The Catholic Church is at war with the LGBT community, always has been and always will be. Most churches are heterosexual institutions; just follow the major feast days for a year. The Catholic Church teaches, “There is no salvation without the church,” which means one must be a communicant as often as possible. Most heterosexual institutions do not want LGBTs. Heterosexuals think we are soft, we will back down instead of standing up for our rights. The church believes it has the LGBT community over the barrel.

Conform to current church teaching and go to heaven or get out. I say get out. Many have said this: stop supporting the archbishop with our money. If the diocese goes bankrupt we as a united community are flexing our muscles.

The church is determined not to change for anyone. If we, and our heterosexual friends that support, do not give money to the church, this is our flexing our muscles. We can protest all we want, have rallies, etc., but it is the offering of money that keeps the archbishop and pope in their lifestyles. Wouldn’t it be nice to see a “For Sale” sign on the cathedral?

Douglas A. Matley San Francisco

qualities most San Franciscans would likely claim as the primary reasons for their living here, and the qualities that make our city different from any other in the U.S. As San Franciscans we are eager to maintain this openness, and are rightly suspicious of those who attempt to curtail or restrict it. Additionally, as gay people who know firsthand the power of oppression and inequity, it is our responsibility to be on guard against what often takes shape as the tyranny of the majority against the minority.

The naked men (and occasional women) who’ve lately taken up residence in the Castro neighborhood, and their enthusiasts, are mistaken, however, when they claim that their rights are being infringed upon by those who would seek to have them congregate elsewhere. I believe the reverse is actually true, and I applaud Supervisor Wiener in his effort to remove this spectacle from our district.

It’s comical and telling that many of those who are most supportive of allowing the naked people to remain in Jane Warner Plaza are either from out of town or residents of other San Francisco neighborhoods. From my own personal experience and that of many of my neighbors, I can assure you that seeing these people nearly every time you walk out your front door is neither amusing nor charming; it’s unsightly and unpleasant.

It’s our elected officials’ responsibility to maintain the integrity of our neighborhoods, and to legislate for change when those neighborhoods need support to sustain the undiminished quality of life that we can reasonably expect to have as residents. In the Castro, Supervisor Wiener has rightly seen that this struggle over naked people as not simply about whether you are for or against public nudity.

Instead, this controversy is about the quality of life you can reasonably expect to have as residents of San Francisco.

Certainly there are many challenges to living in a crowded, urban city, and as residents of San Francisco we learn to face down these occasional inconveniences and annoyances because we believe San Francisco is still the best place to live. I believe, however, that walking through my neighborhood and encountering legions of naked people is not a minor annoyance or inconvenience, but instead an aggressive affront to my right to walk down my street unmolested by public displays of eroticism. For that I go to the Folsom Street Fair, fully cognizant of what I will see.

The naked people congregating in the Castro have diminished the quality of life for all those who call this neighborhood home, and I am hopeful that more reasonable voices will join Supervisor Wiener in seeking to remove this neighborhood scourge.

New political ice age is coming I’ve found myself going through a batch of research of the environment of San Francisco, from the last century to today, for my own understanding as to what, if anything, makes this city tick. One thing LGBTs, especially those of the younger generation and those not familiar with San Francisco history, need to be reminded of is the Roman Catholic Church has not been liberal. The documentary San Francisco Neighborhoods – The Castro made by KQED almost 15 years ago, even pointed out it took the crescendo of the AIDS epidemic for Most Holy Redeemer Church to throw open its doors to Castro LGBTs. According to the film, it was going on two full decades for gays to be welcomed by Most Holy Redeemer. It’s been mentioned in the August 9 Bay Area Reporter [“Drag is out at Most Holy Redeemer”]. They knew this contraction and doubling-down in doctrine was coming. By all appearances they seem to be welcoming it, as well as many of the other congregations throughout San Francisco. In my opinion many of the LGBTs in San Francisco take for granted, and become complacent, of certain ecclesiastical realities that say we might be on the verge of a conservative contractive phase in our history.

I hope Supervisor Scott Wiener is able to make some headway since symbolically, at least, he represents the classically LGBT neighborhood of contemporary time. My own personal feeling is to expect a lot of push back from classically conservative institutions within the city. San Francisco, even through a vast portion of the 20th century, was not as liberal as the chamber of commerce would love to have you believe. Au contraire, from about 1940-1966, it was glacially, coldly conservative. Are we ready to be jarred out of our doldrums again?

Get ready; my feeling a new political ice age is coming.

John Maxwell San Francisco

A diminished quality of life That I am a 30-year resident is testament to what an amazing city I truly believe San Francisco is. Likewise, as a politically progressive gay man and Castro resident, I feel very fortunate that I am able to call this place my home.

The Castro’s popularity largely stems from its being a welcoming place of openness and tolerance, the two

Robert A. Rohr San Francisco

Don’t limit self-expression We shouldn’t be asking our police officers to spend their valuable time writing tickets to people whose only offense is walking around the way God made them. I moved to San Francisco because it was one of the few places I could truly be myself without judgment. And while strolling around naked at noon on a Tuesday isn’t how I normally choose to express myself, I love this city because it’s okay for others to do so. I respect the freedom of people who are brave enough to be in their skin. It’s part of what makes San Francisco different and special. I would be very sad if San Franciscans chose to limit their neighbors’ self-expression in this way.

Philippe Gosselin San Francisco

Why all the anger?

I want to answer Steven Kyle Weller and Matthew Johnson, who both live in San Francisco and who complain about the naked men in the Castro [Mailstrom, September 27]. I used to live in the Castro, too, and I still like this place very much, but I totally disagree about being nude there.

Why some people are sensitive just to see nudists? Because they cannot do it themselves. This is the only answer for their anger. I think it’s nobody’s business who’s wearing cock rings on a hot day on Castro. This place is for everybody, including nudists, and if your fantasy about them being lewd is so intense, please move to another neighborhood.

Georgy Prodorov San Francisco

Send letters to the Bay Area Reporter, 395 Ninth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. Letters must be signed, and include an address and daytime phone number for verification purposes only. Unsigned or anonymous letters will not be published. E-mail letters are accepted at news@ebar.com. Please put “letter to the editor” in the subject line, and also include an address and phone number. Letters may be edited for space.

On the web

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Online content this week includes the Bay Area Reporter’s online column, Political Notes; the Jock Talk and Out in the World columns; more news briefs; a photo from the Swim A Mile for Cancer benefit. www.ebar.com.

<< Community News

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2012

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Early voting begins in SF

with a valid ID. To purchase tickets online, visit tinyurl.com/9mhqxxr.

festivities. Guerra is now a collaborator of I Design, which empowers people living with HIV to play an active role in designing their HIV treatment plans together with their doctors.

Evening of Hope will also feature condom couture, for which the benefit has become known, showcasing 20 show-stopping pieces composed partially of condoms.

Tickets for the benefit, which includes cocktails, culinary delights, and a live auction, are $175 and can be purchased online at www.projectinform.org.

Learn about SFAF programs for gay, bi men

SF HRC LGBT panel seeks members

compiled by Cynthia Laird

T

he San Francisco Department of Elections has announced that early voting for the November 6 election started this week at City Hall and voter information pamphlets are being mailed out to currently registered voters. Those who have registered to permanently vote by mail will begin receiving ballots this week in San Francisco and other cities around the Bay Area.

For early voting in San Francisco, City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, is open weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The elections department is located in the basement. Weekend voting is available October 27-28 and November 3-4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (For weekend access, enter on Grove Street.)

In other election-related news, the department has put out a call for poll workers for November 6. These people operate polling places on Election Day and assist voters in every part of the voting process. They must attend a training class prior to the election. Lead poll workers are responsible for picking up materials before Election Day and transporting them to their assigned polling place on the morning of the election.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens, age 18 or older, and registered to vote in California. All positions are one-day assignments and pay between $125-$170. Interested people can apply online at www.sfelections.org/pw or in person at the Department of Elections. The poll worker hiring office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. each Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. For more information, call (415) 554-4395.

Finally, there is still time for people to register to vote for the November election. The deadline is Monday, October 22.

This year, new California law allows people to register online through the secretary of state’s website at www.registertovote.ca.gov. Since the online site went live last month, hundreds of thousands of people have registered throughout the state.

People can also get to the online voter registration application by clicking the “Register to Vote” button at the Department of Elections website at www.sfelections.org.

The Bay Area Reporter started making its endorsements last month in state and local races. To view the recommendations made so far, visit www.ebar.com and click on the “Election Endorsement” button or see the image in the slide show.

Commonwealth Club features gay Mormon The LGBT Member Led Forum of the Commonwealth Club will have a program featuring Mormons for Marriage Equality tonight (Thursday, October 11) at the clubs’s San Francisco office, 595 Market Street, second floor. The evening begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m. followed by the program at 6.

Fittingly on National Coming Out Day, openly gay Mormon Mitch Mayne will be the special guest.

Mayne is an organizer for Mormons for Marriage Equality, which started in the aftermath of the 2008 passage of Proposition 8, California’s samesex marriage ban.

Mayne has been called to serve his church in a leadership position inside the church hierarchy, reaching out to include and affirm LGBT people in the life of the church. Mormons have started marching in LGBT Pride parades in cities across the country, including San Francisco.

Tickets are $20 standard; $8 for club members; and $7 for students

Want to meet great guys and give something back to your community?

Join Magnet and Bridgemen for one night only to learn about the fun programs offered by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Attendees can enjoy a glass of wine and mingle with staff and volunteers to find out how to get involved.

The event, titled, “Get Real!

Get Dirty! Get Involved!” will be Saturday, October 13 from 7 to 10 p.m. at Magnet, 4122 18th Street in the Castro.

Programs range from Smack Dab open mic nights to saving wild salmon at Muir Beach.

Magnet (www.magnetsf.org) is the men’s health center in the Castro. Bridgemen (http://www.stopaids.org/bridgemen), a program of the Stop AIDS Project, is a cross section of guys in their 30s and 40s looking to reinvest in their communities. Both Magnet and Bridgemen are overseen by SFAF.

Positive Force benefit A special screening of We Were Here, the critically acclaimed documentary about the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, will be held Monday, October 15 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street, second floor.

There is a suggested donation of $20, which includes the film, a question and answer session with several of the film’s subjects, and food and soft drinks. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

The money raised at the event will support a new service being launched

by Positive Force to work with longterm survivors of AIDS. Positive Force is a project of the Stop AIDS Project, which is now overseen by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. The new project is not yet directly funded, so every dollar counts, organizers said.

RSVPs are requested and can be made by going to the Facebook page, http://tinyurl.com/98blzoq.

Berkeley center to offer peer groups in Hayward The Pacific Center in Berkeley will soon begin conducting new peer groups in Hayward and will hold an open house Thursday, October 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Lighthouse Community Center, 1217 A Street.

Both centers serve the LGBT community and Pacific Center officials said the open house is a great way to find out about the new program.

For more information, contact the Pacific Center at (510) 548-8283 or visit www.pacificcenter.org.

Bond to headline Project Inform benefit Performance artist Justin Vivian Bond will headline Project Inform’s Evening of Hope benefit Wednesday, October 24 at 6 p.m. at City View at Metreon, 135 Fourth Street in San Francisco.

Additionally, Mondo Guerra, the openly gay, HIV-positive winner of Project Runway All Stars, will join the

The San Francisco Human Rights Commission’s LGBT advisory committee is seeking new members. One of three standing committees, the LGBT advisory committee is one of the most active; it identifies and addresses issues and concerns of the LGBT and HIV-affected communities in the city.

The committee is looking for members who are community activists knowledgeable and skilled in such areas as racism, HIV/AIDS, antibullying, violence, civil rights, class, disability, diversity, education, gender, intersex, health, women’s, senior, and youth issues. Applicants must be San Francisco residents and must make a firm commitment to attend meetings on the third Tuesday of every month at 5:30 p.m., and to spend additional time in work groups.

Commissioners Michael Pappas and Todd Mavis head the committee.

Interested persons must send a letter (by mail, fax, e-mail, or personal delivery) detailing why they would like to serve on the committee, their community involvement and areas of expertise, and any other qualities they could bring to the post. Applications can also be submitted via the commission’s website at www.sf-hrc. org. The deadline for correspondence to be received is Friday, November 2 at 5 p.m. Letters should be addressed to: Nadia Babella, San Francisco Human Rights Commission, 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 800, San Francisco, CA 94102-6033. The fax number is (415) 431-5764; the e-mail address is nadia.babella@sfgov.org.

Castro Lions benefit The Castro Lions Club will hold a beer bust benefit Sunday, October 14 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Edge, 4149 18th Street in San Francisco. Cost is $10. There will be a 50-50 raffle and Jell-O shots will be sold. Proceeds benefit the Castro Lions charities.

DA announces antibullying video contest In recognition of October being National Anti-Bullying Prevention Month, District Attorney George Gascón has announced Bye Bye Bullying, a video contest for San Francisco middle and high school students.

The contest is being run with several community partners, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and KidPower.

Contestants need to create a 60-second video on one of the following themes: what is bullying and what does bullying and harassment mean to you; effects of bullying and what is the impact of bullying and harassment; or effective ways to respond to bullying and what positive responses have been provided by teachers, administrators, or classmates to address bullying and harassment at school.

The videos will be evaluated by a panel of judges. Contest winners will receive prizes, including iPads, sailing lessons, graffiti art classes, and much more. Video submissions can be made between now and November 7. Winners will be announced December 4. For more information, visit www.sfdistrictattorney.com.▼

▼

Politics>>

October 11-17, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Lesbians seek elected transit seats

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

wo lesbians seeking elected transit seats in the Bay Area have attracted broad support as they head into the final weeks of their campaigns.

On the Peninsula, Moss Beach resident Sabrina Brennan, 42, is running for a seat on the San Mateo County Harbor District. The obscure body has oversight of two marinas, the bayside Oyster Point, where a new East Bay ferry service launched, and the seaside Pillar Point.

In Oakland transit advocate Rebecca Saltzman, 30, is seeking the newly drawn District 3 seat on the Bay Area Rapid Transit board, which includes parts of Oakland and Berkeley and the Contra Costa County cities of Orinda, Moraga, and Lafayette.

Their candidacies are another sign of how the Bay Area’s LGBT community continues to make political inroads outside of San Francisco.

Should they win they would be the first out female members of their respective boards. Longtime gay BART board member Tom Radulovich, who represents San Francisco, is up for re-election this year and is expected to easily win a fifth term.

Radulovich said he wants to remain on the BART board in order to work on several projects he has championed, such as remodeling the 24th Street Station and building transit villages at the Balboa and Glen Park stations.

“I feel I have a lot to do there,” he said.

Plus, he has been impressed with the leadership of BART’s general manager, Grace Crunican, who was hired last year and hails from Seattle.

“She has brought fresh air to BART,” said Radulovich. “She is open to a lot of things I care about.

She is fantastic to work with and has given me a lot of optimism about the place.”

The only woman in her race, Saltzman is up against two male candidates running for the open seat.

Former BART Director Bob Franklin resigned this summer to work for the agency, and the board opted to name former Alameda County Supervisor Mary King as an interim replacement to serve out the remainder of the term.

Whoever wins the November 6 election for the full four-year term will be seated on December 7.

Saltzman lives in Oakland with her wife, Caitlin Stone, and works as an environmental policy advocate with the California League of Conversation Voters.

She is the clear favorite in the race.

She has won endorsements from numerous East Bay politicians and political groups. This week she reported raising another $10,127 in donations for a total campaign haul of $32,020.

“I am feeling really great. I have a lot of momentum and tons of support,” Saltzman told the Bay Area Reporter this week. “I did well in my fundraising and have signed up lots of volunteers.”

Her focus between now and Election Day will mostly be on talking to voters. Her main priority for BART is addressing its $7.5 billion unfunded maintenance needs, she said.

“That is my big concern and, in talking to voters about that, it is very concerning to people,” said Saltzman.

Other issues Saltzman has cited as priorities should she be elected include how to address the needs of BART riders who bike to stations and adding capacity to the current system as BART extends service into San Jose and farther east in Contra Costa and Alameda counties.

“I think most people think the ex-

tensions are great if we can pay for them. I am concerned about a lack of focus on the needs of the current system,” she said. “I want to make sure it doesn’t fall apart before we do anything additional.”

SF leaders fundraise for marriage campaigns

Harbor race Like Saltzman, Brennan is the only woman among six candidates seeking three seats on the harbor district board. She will need to knock out an incumbent in order to win, as all three of the current members with terms up opted to seek reelection.

“If there was an open seat it would be easier,” she said. “It is tough so I definitely need to get the word out to people.”

The five-person commission oversees Oyster Point Marina/Park in South San Francisco and Pillar Point Harbor north of Half Moon Bay. In 2010 Robert Bernardo became the first openly LGBT person to win a seat on the harbor district board. Brennan, who also ran that year but came up short in the race, is the first out woman to run for countywide office in San Mateo.

Since her defeat two years ago, Brennan has laid the groundwork for a second campaign. She officially entered the race in late 2011 and secured the endorsement of the national Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.

She also won the endorsement of the San Mateo Daily Journal, a news site covering the county that had endorsed her in 2010. And this year she picked up the backing of the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee, the South Bay’s LGBT political group.

A New Orleans native, Brennan moved to northern California in 1993 and lives with her wife, Aimee Luthringer, near the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. She owns Digital Fusion Media and has done graphics work for local museums and the America’s Cup races in San Francisco.

She was influenced by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill along the Gulf Coast to become more active in the management of the Bay Area harbors.

“It’s very important to me that we do a better job protecting our shore than was done on the Gulf Coast. I feel compelled to do my part, and I’m passionate about it,” states Brennan on her campaign website.

Her priorities include water and beach pollution at the marinas to how the harbor district spends its funds and maintains its waterfront properties.

She also advocates for making the new ferry service at Oyster Point, where ridership so far has been far below expectations, more accessible to commuters, particularly those who ride bikes or take Caltrain.

“We can do more to entice visitors to come to the harbors and patronize the businesses. We can encourage entrepreneurs who want to start new businesses,” wrote Brennan. “We can find creative ways to make the waterfront more appealing without spending millions.”

Park Station names LGBT liaison A second police station has assigned one of its officers to be a liaison to the LGBT community.

Officer Jim McMahan at Park Station has been named to the post.

The gay policeman joined the San Francisco Police Department in 2004 and has spent time at both the Ingleside and Mission stations.

It was Mission Station’s LGBT liaison, Sergeant Chuck Limbert, who helped train the rookie officer eight years ago.

In April then newly installed Park

an update,” he explained in an email to the B.A.R.

Courtesy Saltzman for BART campaign

Courtesy Brennan campaign

BART board candidate Rebecca Saltzman

San Mateo Harbor board candidate Sabrina Brennan

Station Captain John J. Feeney said he would look at appointing an LGBT liaison in response to a question from the Bay Area Reporter.

The station share’s coverage of the city’s gay Castro district with Mission Station, as it has jurisdiction over the Duboce Triangle neighborhood and Twin Peaks.

The station also patrols the gayfriendly Haight and Cole Valley districts as well as parts of Golden Gate Park, where homeless LGBT youth are known to congregate.

Before Feeney was able to finalize his decision, he was transferred out of the station this summer back to his old job. Former Mission Station Captain Greg Corrales was then named the new captain at Park Station.

When asked last month about the LGBT liaison role by the B.A.R., Corrales said he would look into naming a person to the post. Last week he introduced his choice of McMahan to Castro merchants during their monthly meeting.

McMahan, who gave his age as 30-something, said he agreed to take on the added role since he is on Cor-

rales’s staff and works with him a lot.

“It was a natural fit,” he said.

Website seeks input on Castro issues Longtime Castro resident James Rosenfield has launched a website to seek public feedback on several contentious issues being debated in the city’s LGBT district.

The site is currently seeking input on the proposed public nudity ban and if the benches at Harvey Milk Plaza should be removed. Other topics include proposals by several national retail chains to open locations along upper Market Street.

The site has only been up a few weeks, and Rosenfield plans to keep it live through at least mid-October. He then plans to tabulate the information he has gathered and distribute it to various leaders in the Castro and people who signed up on the site, which is at http://uppermarket.org.

“When I do close the forums I will be creating mini reports for each issue which will go to the key players and decision makers that can make use of the info, and of course I’ll email all participants with

San Francisco leaders are hosting a fundraiser this weekend to support the ballot box fights over same-sex marriage in four states this fall.

Voters in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington will decide in November whether to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. Polling has shown the pro-gay side has a good chance of winning in several states, which would be the first electoral win for marriage equality.

The group Freedom to Marry is working with local LGBT leaders to host a National Engagement Party in San Francisco where supporters can “raise a glass (or two) to the freedom to marry and help raise much needed funds to help the four battleground states facing ballot campaigns in November.”

Tickets to the Saturday, October 13 event begin at $125 per person. It will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Jonathan Browning Studios, 30 Sheridan Street in South of Market.

To buy tickets visit www.freedomtomarry.org/SFParty.▼ Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion.

This week’s column looks at how bisexual District 5 Supervisor Christina Olague has become a central player in the proceedings on suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi.

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.

<< Community News

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2012

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SF visit by film crew shines light on sex trafficking

by Elliot Owen

J

. Rae Niles has always been inquisitive. The self-identified butch lesbian filmmaker states without hesitation that “why” has always been her favorite word. Guided by curiosity and an innate pull toward social justice causes, Niles is knee-deep in a project that asks a big question.

“Every 10 minutes a person is trafficked into this country,” the over-40 (she never gives her age) Niles said. “Tell me why we have hundreds of thousands of people trafficked here and nobody is doing anything about it.”

By the end of the year Niles hopes to finish Broken: Beyond Silence, a documentary that draws attention to the global and domestic sex trafficking trade. She is the writer and codirector of the film and just finished filming a segment of the documentary in San Francisco in late September.

Her next stop is New York and based on funding at that point, will evaluate whether including Paris and Amsterdam in the film is also possible.

“We want to raise public awareness and put pressure on politicians to start talking about this,” Niles said.

“The documentary will feature interviews with political figures, law enforcement, anti-trafficking organizations, and victims.”

While in San Francisco, Niles conducted an interview with Representative Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo), who earlier this year publicly lauded an initiative called the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act, which garnered enough support to qualify for inclusion on this November’s ballot as Proposition 35. The measure would increase sentences and fines for human trafficking convictions.

Today, human sex trafficking is the fastest-growing organized crime in the world. According to a 2009 FBI report, three of the nation’s 13 highest sex trafficking areas are in California: Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco.

“What it looks like in San Francisco is direct sex industry trafficking from Asia,” Niles said. “There are operational brothels right here in the city.

And there are no concrete numbers for how many are enslaved here.”

Niles will also be including an interview with Sergeant Arlin Vanderbilt,

Elliot Owen

Lead interviewer Victoria Williams, left, talked to SFPD Special Victims Unit Sergeant Arlin Vanderbilt at 850 Bryant Street for the sex trafficking documentary Broken: Beyond Silence.

who has been with the San Francisco Police Department for 17 years and has spent the last three as a human trafficking investigator. Although the documentary centers specifically around sex trafficking, Vanderbilt stressed that all forms of human trafficking are inextricably linked and can have similar indicators.

“These crimes go on largely outside of public view but there are moments where it is exposed, whether it’s with domestic servitude or something else,” Vanderbilt said. “That’s an opportunity for an informed citizen to bring it to the attention of the police or advocacy groups.

“Our success at combating this problem is going to hinge on those of us fighting the fight to educate the public about it,” he continued.

“It requires a partnership.”

In order to maximize the awareness brought to the subject, Niles is coupling the documentary with a feature film titled Dark Halls which is now is preproduction and still securing investment. She is joining forces with Emmy Award-winning film and television production designer Jon Hutman (West Wing, The Tourist, As Good As It Gets, In The Land of Blood and Honey), Sundance Award-winning cinematographer Amy Vincent (Hustle and Flow, Footloose) and producers Michael Fox, Andrea Meyerson (who is also co-directing the New York segment of Broken: Beyond Silence,) Kimberly Skyrme, Kay Ostrenko,

and Colin McCabe.

The feature explores the sex trafficking trade from the perspective of two female journalists who were also lovers while working as war correspondents during the Kosovo war. After going their separate ways, they reconnect at present day to delve into a sex trafficking investigation that includes elements from real-life stories of sex trafficking victims that Niles has spoken with while researching in both Europe and the U.S. from 2010 to present.

“It’s not one of those overt inyour-face love stories but something where the cause overrides everything else,” Niles said. “We’ve never had a gay Casablanca; we’ve got one now.”

Dark Halls is expected to include big name stars and as far as Niles is concerned, will have a chance at the Sundance Film Festival once it’s released. But personal recognition is not what she’s looking for – recognition for the millions of people annually forced into the sex trafficking industry is. A few years ago, Niles experienced a personal loss. A close friend who had been “working” for years committed suicide after she turned 40.

“Once people are in the industry it’s very hard for them to get out,” Niles said. “When you get older and you think that’s all you’re worth, you don’t know what’s next for you after that. These projects are largely in commemoration of her.”▼

Oakland Halloween party aims to be ‘Scary Queer’

by Elliot Owen

G

et a kick out of a case of the creeps? Do you like your blood turning cold? Goosebumps? Maybe having a good, ear-splitting scream?

If so, this upcoming event presented

by Black Girl Dangerous, a literary and activist blog for queer and transgender people of color, should knock your socks right off. It’s called “Scary Queer: A Halloween Storytelling Event” that’s taking place Thursday, October 18 at the Living Room Project in Oakland.

From 7:30 to 9 p.m., some of the Bay Area’s most talented writers and performers will be sharing their literary and musical interpretations of what “scary” and “queer” mean together. Mia McKenzie, a queer black femme nerd and founder of Black Girl Dangerous, has already set the tone for the event in promoting it with witty and provocative wording that both foreshadows the quirkiness of the evening and is also representative of her narrative talent.

photo

Blues artist KB TuffNStuff, left, will join Mia McKenzie and Cherry Galette at next week’s “Scary Queer! A Halloween Storytelling Event.”

“We’re continuing the age-old traditions of queer scary storytelling,” McKenzie, 36, said, “started by fierce cave people who on dark nights sat around the fire in woolly mammoth furs and glitter lipstick, regaling each other with tales of vampire dandies and ghost butches and scaring the Lord’s prayer out of each other.”

“All these millennia later,” she continued, “there may still be a fire, there will almost certainly be glitter lipstick, plus we’re throwing in the devil’s music, spiked cocoa, and plenty of debauchery.”

McKenzie herself will be reading a piece centering around secrecy and a See page 12 >>

▼

LGBT History Month >>

October 11-17, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Ruth Ellis: Age knew no bounds

by Susan Horowitz

S

he was the matriarch of Detroit’s LGBT community. And more than a decade after her death, her memory lives on.

Ruth Charlotte Ellis lived to be 101 and was an active and muchbeloved member of the community right up until the end. She danced her way – literally – into the hearts of many, impressed with her warmth and quiet dignity and inspired with her drive and frequent random acts of kindness.

Ellis was born July 23, 1899, in Springfield, Illinois. She recalled hiding in her home during the Springfield race riots of 1908. Later, she fell in love with her white gym teacher, who held her hand to complete a class circle when other students wouldn’t.

Encouraged by the promise of better wages, Ellis moved to Detroit in 1937, where she watched over a young boy in Highland Park for $7 a week.

Soon, however, she put the printingpress knowledge she had picked up in Springfield to work and secured a position with Waterfield and Heath, where she worked until she opened her own press some years later.

Ellis ran her business out of the West Side home she shared with her partner, Ceciline “Babe” Franklin. The couple became known for their weekend house parties, a haven for young LGBTs who had nowhere else to go.

She took several of them in, and even helped a few through college before she retired and moved to a downtown senior complex. Franklin moved to Southfield, but the two shared keys to one another’s residences, and the relationship continued until 1975, when Franklin suffered a heart attack on her way to work.

“I don’t think it was love,” Ellis once said about her 30-year relationship with Franklin. “[But] she was good for me. She taught me how to take care of myself.”

Lesbian pioneer Ruth Ellis helped LGBT young people in the Detroit area; a center named after her continues the work.

Andrew Potter Photography

Out comedian Wanda Sykes, center, was on hand for a recent benefit at the Ruth Ellis Center. With Sykes are, from left, Brooklynn Peterson, Khristal Wren, Jeremy Fulwilner, Sabin Blake, and Frank Hope.

Ellis remained active after the loss, and took up photography and bowling. She traveled often and began helping out elderly neighbors, running errands for them and picking up their groceries.

In the late 1980s, Ellis was at a self-defense class when she met Jay Spiro, who she correctly identified as a fellow lesbian. The two had dinner and Spiro began introducing Ellis around. Soon, crowds were lining up to dance with Ellis at parties and social functions, where she developed a reputation for wearing out dance partners on the floor.

“I love good dance music and classical music,” she told Between the Lines in 1999. “When I am dancing, people say, ‘Miss Ruth, I have got to quit, I am too tired.’ But I’m still dancing.”

The awards and accolades began at about this time, as the public took notice of Ellis’s remarkable life, her entrepreneurial skills, and the as-

sistance she provided to younger LGBTs for several decades. She was honored with lifetime-achievement awards, resolutions from the mayor and other officials and even an honorary doctorate.

But the greatest recognition came as her 100th birthday drew near. Living With Pride: Ruth Ellis at 100, the documentary-style telling of her life

by Yvonne Welbon, won top honors at several major film festivals. Ellis was written up in virtually every major LGBT publication across the country and profiled by mainstream African American publications like Essence and feminist works like Ms. magazine.

Ellis eventually tired of the attention. Her failing health caused her to cut down her travel schedule, and she even turned down the chance to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

“I’m getting to be too important,” Ellis said at the time. “I never imagined all of this. I guess no one has ever

seen a lesbian this old before.”

Ellis was hospitalized in the summer of 2000 – at age 101 – dehydrated and exhausted. But she struggled to hold on until she made it back home, where she wanted to make her transition. She died in her sleep in the early morning hours of October 5.

Often amazed at her own celebrity, Ellis frequently asked why everyone made such a “fuss” over her. Those who had the pleasure of knowing her, however, would never ask such a question.

“Ruth positively touched lives across North America,” said Johnny Jenkins of Detroit Black Gay Pride.

“Her spirit touched the essence of our humanity.”

And her spirit continues to touch us today through the effort of the Ruth Ellis Center, the groundbreaking youth shelter, transitional living and outreach program founded in 1999. Ellis was on hand for the

ribbon-cutting of the agency’s first drop-in center in 2000.

Ruth’s House, the center’s transitional-living quarters, opened in 2004, and the agency continues to thrive as it provides short-term and long-term residential safe space and support services for runaway, homeless and at-risk LGBT youth in Detroit and southeastern Michigan.

Out comedian and Emmy Awardwinning actress Wanda Sykes visited the center in 2010 and again this year.

She was so impressed by what she saw that she tweeted to her more than 100,000 followers about the center and went on to star in a public-service announcement for the agency. She also hosted a fundraising dinner for the agency and donated $15,000.

If Ellis was surprised by how much attention she garnered in her lifetime, she would have been awestruck to know how her work has continued and her memory lives on.▼ Susan Horowitz is the co-publisher and editor of Between the Lines, an LGBT newspaper based in Michigan.

<< Community News

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2012

▼

Program offers legal help to low-income LGBT seniors

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

new program has launched to offer legal help to low-income LGBT seniors living in San Francisco.

The local nonprofit Bay Area Legal Aid launched the GLBT Seniors Advocacy Project in order to help out elders with limited incomes who encounter problems where they may need the assistance of an attorney.

Anyone 62 years of age or older whose income is roughly $13,953 or less a year is eligible for the program. Those eligible likely are living in single-room-occupancy hotels or have been in the same rent-controlled apartment for decades.

The program’s main goal is to

<<

Family images

From page 1

their loved ones or children. If they aren’t out front about their sexual orientation, they could face uncomfortable questions from voters or see it become the focus of news coverage.

Joe Fuld, a campaign consultant who for the last 12 years has helped train LGBT candidates for the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, said there are various reasons why campaigns will showcase the married lives of candidates.

“I think from a positive standpoint, you can be putting your family in a piece of mail to show you are part of the community, are connected to the community, and are like the people getting the mail,” said Fuld, who is straight and owns the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign

see that legal issues do not result in LGBT elders living on fixed incomes lose their housing in San Francisco and have to relocate elsewhere.

“It’s a population that is extremely fragile because at any moment if they have a fluctuation in their income they could miss a rent payment and be evicted,” said Jamie Wagoner, the nonprofit’s Borchard Fellow in Law and Aging and the principal advocate behind the new project. “What we are hoping to do is prevent them from having to leave the city.”

GSAP is equipped to handle problems that out elders may experience with a variety of governmental assistance programs, such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security retirement benefits, county adult assistance

Workshop. “It could be a straight family or LGBT family, whoever it is. It can show what folks are going through.”

The strategy can also be used for negative purposes, added Fuld.

“I have done races before where we have seen anti-gay candidates not only say or use anti-gay rhetoric but also do spots where they zoom in on wedding rings,” he recalled.

“They really try to establish their candidate as being the ‘family’ or traditional family candidate. We have certainly seen that.”

Discerning just what message is being sent becomes trickier when the candidate playing up their family while running against an out opponent also has a track record of supporting LGBT issues.

Two candidates running in the Bay Area this fall considered strong allies of the LGBT community in-

program (General Assistance), Medi-Cal, Medi-Cal Managed Care, and In-Home Support Services.

“We will act as their lawyer and we will represent them if they have to go to Social Security Administration hearings,” said Wagoner. “We could represent them and go to court over their eviction.”

In addition, GSAP can offer referrals to other Bay Area Legal Aid services related to domestic violence, housing-related problems, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), CalWORKS, and Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI).

“It is hoped that GSAP will provide timely assistance to GLBT seniors as soon as a problem arises with their benefits, preventing dis-

Jane Philomen Cleland

Jamie Wagoner

ruptions or reductions in payments and the consequent loss of housing,” explained Wagoner in an email announcing GSAP’s launch. “This si-

lent movement of the low-income GLBT senior population out of the community could be devastating for the individuals who are forced to relocate to less tolerant and culturally sensitive areas.”

The Borchard Foundation contributed $40,000 toward GSAP, which launched in September. Bay Area Legal Aid is providing $5,000 in additional funding.

Wagoner encouraged any senior with questions to call GSAP at (415) 354-6307 or email GSAP@ BayLegal.org.

“If someone is about to enter that age, we could speak with them and help them with planning or if they have questions about what it will be like for them at age 62,” said Wagoner. ▼

A campaign mailer for Assembly candidate Abel Guillen highlights his attention to education, while his opponent, Rob Bonta, features a photo of his family and notes he is married.

cluded their wedding photo in mailers their campaigns sent out.

In San Francisco school board president Norman Yee, who is seeking the District 7 supervisor seat, used one of his wedding photos on a mailer that touted his having a “strong family.” In addition to the pictures of Yee with his wife and kids, the mailer points out he was born in San Francisco and that he “wanted my kids to grow up on the west side of ” town because “there’s no better place to raise a family.”

Yee told the Bay Area Reporter that the mailer with his wedding photo was part of a series he sent out to introduce “who I am, my life, wife and kids. It was nothing more than to show who I am.”

He added that there was “no subtle anything” intended with the mailer.

Joel Engardio, a gay man who is also seeking the District 7 seat west of Twin Peaks, said that he “doesn’t read too much into” the Yee mailers.

He did criticize them for “not saying a lot about what he is going to do at City Hall.”

When he decided to enter the race in the district considered to be the city’s most conservative, Engardio said he was told not to bring up being gay or run on LGBT issues.

“I was told don’t carry your rainbow flag down West Portal,” said Engardio. “The only advice I got was to downplay it.”

Instead he has taken the exact opposite approach. His fliers tout that his being elected to a supervisor seat on the west side of town would make LGBT history and feature a photo of him with his partner, Lionel Hsu. He has also written

about being asked by residents if he is married or has a family when he knocks on doors.

In the East Bay 18th Assembly District candidate Rob Bonta, a city councilman in Alameda, also raised eyebrows when he included a wedding photo in a mailer he sent out. Bonta is locked in a tough race against fellow Democrat Abel Guillen, a member of the Peralta Community College District board who dates both men and women and identifies as two-spirit.

Some have questioned if Bonta, a deputy city attorney in San Francisco, is playing up his family in order to curry support from more conservative voters in the district.

“What type of dog whistle do you blow so only Republicans can See page 13 >>

Bob Callori

SF FrontRunners give back S

an Francisco FrontRunners presented a check Saturday, October 6 for $9,400 to Eric Jansen, left, and Marilyn Pittman, producer-hosts of Out in the Bay – Gay Radio from San Francisco. The radio show is celebrating its eighth

year and is heard at 7 p.m. Thursdays on public radio station KALW, 91.7 FM (www.OutintheBay.com). Out in the Bay was beneficiary of the FrontRunners’ 2012 Pride Run, an annual fundraiser.

▼

National Coming Out Day>>

October 11-17, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Doctors call on medical schools to teach LGBT health

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

s a growing number of patients feel comfortable coming out to their doctors, the nation’s medical schools and physicians’ offices have become new arenas in the fight for LGBT equality.

Health care professionals are discovering that they often lack even basic knowledge about how to care for their LGBT patients. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that what ails gay men and lesbians can differ from what afflicts straight patients.

There are also vast differences among the people who are lumped together under the category of transgender. The health needs of transgender women are quite different from those transgender men will face throughout their lifetimes.

Yet few of the country’s medical schools adequately prepare their students to properly care for their LGBT patients. And even at those schools that have begun to tackle LGBT health issues, the training hours devoted toward the topic are often hardly adequate.

Responding to this growing need, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association assembled a task force of its members to create a comprehensive guide for health professional schools to teach their students, faculty and staff about LGBT health care.

The report, titled “Recommendations for LGBT Equity and Inclusion in Health Professions Education,” is being released today (Thursday, October 11) to coincide with National Coming Out Day. It covers everything from laying out just what are the LGBT community’s key health concerns and steps schools can take to signify they are

“We want to make sure allied providers, not just LGBT providers, are competent to address the very specific health issues that affect our community.”

–Hector Vargas LGBT friendly to curriculum suggestions for teaching students how to treat LGBT patients.

“One of our primary goals as an organization is to design and create education programs and curriculum to ensure providers all across the country are equipped to handle the health issues of LGBT people,” Hector Vargas, GLMA’s executive director, told the Bay Area Reporter in a recent interview.

In addition to the report, which can be downloaded from the professional group’s website at www.glma. org, GLMA created a four-part webinar series to teach about cultural competence in LGBT health. The first one in June attracted more than 400 registrants.

“We plan to do more,” said Vargas. “We want to make sure allied providers, not just LGBT providers, are competent to address the very specific health issues that affect our community.”

GLMA showcased the issue at its annual conference it held last month in San Francisco. The lead author of the new report, Shane Snowdon, presented a sneak peak of its findings and conclusions during one of the morning plenary sessions.

Obituaries >> Katherine Ann Barlow April 25, 1967 – September 1, 2012

Katherine Ann Barlow of San Francisco died on September 1, 2012 after having suffered a stroke on August 30.

Kate was born on April 25, 1967 at Chester-Crozer Hospital in Chester, Pennsylvania, though she lived most of her life in New Jersey.

A 1989 graduate of Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania, Kate continued her education at Life Chiropractic College West in Hayward, California where she received her doctor of chiropractic degree in December 1995.

Kate moved into San Francisco, the city that she loved so much, in February 1996. She worked as a chiropractor in several different offices before opening her own practice in Noe Valley.

Kate is survived by her partner of 12 years, Juliana Habib; her mother Sally Barlow Grazer of Avalon, New Jersey; her father Ernie Barlow of San Diego, California; and brother Ernie of Perry Hall, Maryland.

Kate was a kind person who was genuinely interested in those she met. She valued her friendships dearly and held her friends close to her heart.

In Kate’s memory, it is requested that you consider becoming an organ donor and give the gift of life as Kate did.

Donald Joseph Cook Jr. February 23, 1938 – September 30, 2012

Donald Joseph Cook Jr. was born February 23, 1938 in Manhattan, New York. He graduated from Bishop Loughlin High School, NY, and received a BA degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1956 to 1960. He became Trans World Airways’ youngest pilot in 1965 and was written up in virtually every newspaper and magazine in the world when his plane was hijacked out of Los

Angeles on October 31, 1969. After he was able to get the passengers off at a stop in Bangor, Maine, Captain Cook landed the plane in Rome, Italy.

He moved to San Francisco in 1975.

Mr. Cook was well known as an engaging raconteur with a biting wit and a wonderful sense of humor. He was a very generous man who supported many charities and causes through the years. Mr. Cook passed away after a long and valiant battle with cancer on September 30, 2012 in San Francisco. He is survived by his younger brother, George Malcolm Cook of New York City, and his longtime companions Robert Lanning (a.k.a. Gladys Bumps) of 46 years and Keith Osborne of 41 years. He will be greatly missed by friends and acquaintances around the world.

Donna M. Lane September 8, 1951 – September 12, 2012

On October 13 at noon friends and admirers are invited to a celebration of Donna Lane’s life and work at the large English Oak tree in the meadow on the south side of JFK Drive, just west of the rose garden, in Golden Gate Park. Donna served as a gardener in this park for over 10 years; she was also a poet and essayist. Over the years the park, and this tree in particular, became a fruitful source of poems and her connection with nature. She brought these and other works to poetry readings and had several pieces published.

Her commitment to life, her fears of death, and her relationships with women, family, and other experiences were documented in three books of beautiful, powerful poetry: Actual Slashes (1974), Where I Live (2005), and Faster Than the Speed of Hope (2010).

Donna was a breast cancer survivor who enjoyed 14 years of remission before the cancer returned in 2006. While she is no longer physically with us, her words will remain as a testimony to her great gifts as an artist. She is survived by many friends and her two sisters, Michelle and Lynette, and their families.

“This was a huge and sweeping project,” noted Snowdon, who this summer joined the Human Rights Campaign as director of its health and aging program. “It is an eight ounce, 100-page document.”

For 14 years Snowdon had served as the founding director of the UCSF Center for LGBT Health and Equity.

She has long advocated for and provided LGBT health training at hundreds of hospitals, health professional schools, and other health organizations throughout the country.

With the creation of the GLMA report, Snowdon said any health care institution is now equipped to offer such training.

“This document puts forward recommendations that any health professional school can consider. It is not just for medical schools,” she noted.

Better communication One of the report’s suggestions calls for doctors and other medical professionals to be trained in how to communicate with their LGBT patients so that they do not unknowingly use language that may be interpreted as negative or anti-gay.

“Every single health professional school has got to prepare their students for how to respond positively when their patient comes out,” said Snowdon.

Courtesy GLMA

GLMA Executive Director Hector Vargas

Other medical associations are also turning their attention to the needs of LGBT patients. At the American Association of Medical Assistants’ conference last month, caring for LGBT people was highlighted during a morning session.

Despite using the problematic phrase “LGBT lifestyles,” the AAMA confab’s program said the panel would focus on why LGBT patients often have difficulty accessing adequate health care and would provide a tutorial on the proper terminology that applies to LGBT patients.

“We want all other health care associations to follow suit,” said Snowdon, who later added that GLMA also wants medical schools to “get their hands rainbow dirty” and use the new report to create their own LGBT courses and trainings.

Great strides have already been made in recent years in getting some form of LGBT curriculum to be taught at medical schools.

“A vast number of medical schools are doing it,” said Snowdon. “A few years ago I could have collected all the curriculum in the

country in one document. Now that is no longer possible.”

One breakout session during the GLMA conference featured speakers from various medical schools discussing the steps they and their faculty supporters took to add LGBT health issues to the curriculum.

A leader in the emerging field is the LGBT Medical Education Research Group at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Known as LGBT MERG, the group formed in 2007 and has its own extensive website at med.stanford.edu/lgbt/ where it shares data and information.

William White, a doctor of medicine candidate and an LGBT MERG investigator, presented results from a survey on if medical schools are teaching LGBT topics. It found that nearly all institutions teach about HIV and AIDS while only a handful address transgender care.

“In terms of students we surveyed, 71 percent wanted more clinical exposure to LGBT issues,” said White.

Despite the latest pro-gay advances in the health care realm, Snowdon acknowledged there is more to be done to ensure LGBT patients receive proper care.

“It is not the last word. We are at the beginning of a whole new world in LGBT health learning,” she said.

One focus of attention in the coming years will likely be the accreditation requirements for the nation’s medical training schools.

To date none are required to teach about LGBT health.

“As educators we are held to our accreditation bodies. In none of the agencies is there a single reference to gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender,” noted Dr. Abbas Hyderi, as associate dean of curriculum at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.▼

<< Community News

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2012

▼

City College to close Castro campus

by Peter Hernandez

C

ity College of San Francisco’s Castro campus will close next semester amid a financial crisis that threatens the school’s future.

The board and administrators of the 86,000-student community college are frenetically drafting action plans to meet a set of 14 recommendations by the Accrediting Commission of Community and Junior Colleges while preparing for closure in March if their plan fails.

When William Walker, the openly gay student trustee, found out that the Castro campus would close, he recognized it may be a “slap in the face” to the LGBT community but voted for its closure because of cost-savings.

The campus consists of night classes held at Everett Middle School in the gay neighborhood.

Walker said that the college’s LGBT community should look at other means of centralizing their influence around campus, noting the disconnect between organizations like the Queer Resource Center, the first of its kind in the country, and the school’s gay-straight alliance club. He said that the two groups weren’t collaborating on things such as the National Coming Out Day event set for today (Thursday, October 11). As a result,

he said, the school’s LGBT community should instead look at other means of creating a space to combat homophobia.

City College students elected Walker to the board. He is also a candidate for the college board in next month’s general election.

The Castro campus closure will save the college $85,000, a relief to the board that has been scrambling to restore low financial reserves. The annual rent alone could pay for an additional 15 classes for a college that has significantly reduced its course offerings for the next fiscal year in a budget that assumes the passage of both local Proposition A and state Proposition 30.

City College holds 25 evening classes at Everett Middle School.

Most are language courses while four are LGBT studies classes. Instructors complain about the San Francisco Unified School District’s refusal to allow access to its wireless Internet and meticulous nitpicking – like leaving letter grades on worn chalkboards – of the condition of the classrooms after the college’s use. There are no student services at the campus, which is rented from SFUSD. “We are in a middle school. For a lot of LGBT people, gosh what a hideous flashback,” said Ardel

Thomas, chair of the college’s LGBT studies department.

A school district spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment by press time.

Thomas looks at the closure as an opportunity to spread her department’s offerings across San Francisco.

The LGBT studies courses are presently held at City College’s Ocean campus in the Balboa Park district and Castro.

They will be redistributed into neighborhoods like Bayview and the Tenderloin, which have ties to transgender and African American gay culture.

“What better a place for my classes

City College board member Rodrigo Santos

City College board member Natalie Berg

City College board member Chris Jackson

City College board member Steve Ngo

In his questionnaire, Mandelman said, “The simple reality is that if we want City College to continue to do the excellent work it has historically done, we need to find additional sources of revenue to support it.”

Mandelman recently told the B.A.R. in an interview that the school’s vast network of alumni should be tapped as donors. He also talked about lobbying the business community to support City College, given the campus’s role as a workforce trainer.

In her questionnaire, incumbent Natalie Berg, who’s 74 and has served three terms as the board’s president, responded to a question about her awareness of problems before the ACCJC report was released and what she’d done to address them by saying, “Because of communication issues with the past administration, the board members were not apprised of the problems; therefore, they could not be addressed.”

In a follow-up interview, Berg said she was referring to former chancellor Griffin, who “did not inform of us anything.”

“As soon as he left, we found out

what was going on, but we did not know while he was there. ... If we asked him questions, he didn’t respond to them.”

Berg said she’s worked to deal with the issues facing the school.

“I was a voice of one voting ‘No’ on everything my esteemed colleagues were voting ‘Yes’ on,” including increased pay for teachers, Berg said.

“I know we feel bad about not giving raises to people, but we can’t do it,” she said.

Chris Jackson, 29, is another incumbent running to remain on the board. Among other accomplishments, Jackson helped create the college’s Bridges to Success initiative with the San Francisco Unified School District and the city.

“This partnership allows us to provide targeted outreach to SFUSD students and ensure that they have early registration for classes and financial aid,” Jackson said in his questionnaire responses.

As far as addressing the school’s problems, Jackson said, among other steps, “I have supported efforts to cap our vacation time payouts and have worked hard to restructure our

administration and consulting contracts, which has saved City College over $5 million annually.”

A newcomer to city politics, Amy Bacharach, 36, said in her questionnaire that she went from a high school drop-out to obtaining her Ph.D. degree. She works as a researcher and evaluator for California’s Administrative Office of the Courts and has experience working with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges – the body that oversees the ACCJC. In her questionnaire, Bacharach said people associated with City College “need to assess our budget in an in-depth and thoughtful way, making difficult decisions based on analysis of data and facts while leaving emotions aside. In addition to analyzing and balancing the budget, I will implement data collection practices, working with the academic senate to determine and define outcome measures.”

Incumbent Steve Ngo, 36, said in his questionnaire responses that the “major challenges” facing the school are “addressing entrenched internal governance structures” and “spending our money better.” That’s whether the school addresses the $180

million-plus retiree health obligation, smarter enrollment management, or other ideas, he said.

her acclaimed writing ability, will be sharing a creepy circus-themed story that takes place around the turn of the century.

Nico Dacumos, a producer, performer, poet, writer, and high school teacher, will be reading from his young adult queer vampire novel and KB TuffNStuff, a Two-Spirit musician and co-director of Queer Rebel Productions, will be performing haunting blues sounds under eerie low-

lighting.

Emceeing the event is Jezebel Delilah X, a performance artist, writer, filmmaker, and teacher who’s interactive and fiery emceeing style is known in the community for its engaging, entertaining and creative flow.

While Scary Queer will be light and fun, McKenzie intends for attendees to reflect on what it means to “queer” Halloween for the community.

“The season of the dead is upon

us,” she said. “This season brings up hard stuff around the way that a life lived queer can end and the way we as queer people deal with death and remembrance. Honoring our dead and the people who didn’t have the freedom to come out is definitely an element to the event. We need to name that and own that.”

Drinks and food will be available and the cover at the door is sliding scale $7 to $12. No one will be turned

away for lack of funds. All proceeds will go to the performers. Attendees are asked to arrive fragrance free.

“Bring a blanket so you can be nice and cozy when we scare the holy bejeezus out of you,” McKenzie said.

“Fun!” The Living Room Project is located at 1919 Market Street in Oakland. To purchase tickets online, visit http://www.brownpapertickets.com/ event/281895.▼

Courtesy William Walker

City College student Trustee William Walker

Rick Gerharter

City College candidate Amy Bacharach

<<

City College

From page 1

expected to leave this month, shortly after an October 15 deadline for the college to submit a special report to ACCJC. Last week the board selected Thelma Scott-Skillman as the college’s next interim chancellor; she begins work November 1.

The appointment of Santos, a structural engineer who currently sits on the city’s Workforce Investment Board, puts him in the top tier of candidates. Three incumbents are also running, as is gay attorney Rafael Mandelman. There are four seats up in November; the board has seven members.

If Mandelman, 38, wins a spot in the November 6 election, the panel will have two out gay members. Another gay man, Lawrence Wong, currently serves on the board. His seat is up in 2014.

Mandelman is a past president of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club and already serves on the college district board’s Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee, to which he was appointed earlier this year.

<<

Oakland Halloween

From page 8

ghostly queer return from the grave.

Other featured artists include Yosimar Reyes, a poet and performer raised hearing stories about buried treasure in Mexico, La Llorona, and El Cucuy.

His piece incorporates a scary story and fun pop song. Cherry Galette, a burlesque and performance artist who’s previously been quiet about

than at the Southeast campus,” said Thomas, adding that that part of the city has some of the highest HIV/ AIDS rates among black men.

Courses titled “Queer People of Color” and “The Latino/Latina LGBT Experience” will show up at the Mission and Southeast campuses by next semester, decentralizing the department’s offerings and taking some students out of their geographic comfort zones. But the Castro isn’t necessarily convenient for her students, Thomas said. Many can’t afford to live in the pricey neighborhood and some are on the brink of homelessness.

Thomas said more than 65 percent of her students are people of color – mostly Latino.

The September 27 board meeting, where the vote on the Castro campus was taken, served a venue for related department chairs to voice their concerns, but there was no public comment from the LGBT community.

Walker attempted to send a mass email to encourage City College students to comment on the draft report, but interim chancellor Pamila Fisher didn’t approve it.

Fisher, who leaves her position next month, has been denounced by faculty as being hands-off with the student community and reluctant to engage with student activists concerned about the school’s possible closure.

The Castro campus opened in 1985 as City College’s effort to reach out to the LGBT community, initially at James Lick Middle School. The LGBT studies department serves concurrent students from Sonoma State University and Napa Valley College.

It has since grown to be a model for other universities and colleges across the country and has UC- and CSUtransferrable courses.

The closure represents the beginning of consolidation of City College’s nine campuses and some 100 instructional sites. ▼

Jane Philomen Cleland

Mona T. Brooks

Proposition A All of the candidates who responded to the B.A.R.’s questionnaire support Proposition A, the City College parcel tax that is on the November ballot. Prop A would authorize a $79 tax on each parcel of residential and commercial property in San Francisco for eight years. It anticipates raising an additional $15 million annually for City College of San Francisco. According to the city’s Department of Elections Ballot Simplification Committee, among other things, the funds would be used by City College to maintain core academic courses, including English, math and science.

The B.A.R. is endorsing Prop A, as well as candidates Bacharach, Mandelman, and Santos.

Candidates Nate Cruz, Hanna Leung, George Vazhappally, and William Walker didn’t provide completed questionnaires. Walker is openly gay and currently serves as the student trustee, elected by the student body.▼

▼ <<

Community News >>

Sheriff

From page 1

Gay Supervisor David Campos and bisexual Supervisor Christina Olague, along with Supervisors John Avalos and Jane Kim, voted not to sustain Mayor Ed Lee’s official misconduct charges against Mirkarimi.

Supervisors David Chiu, Carmen Chu, Malia Cohen, Sean Elsbernd, Mark Farrell, Eric Mar, and gay Supervisor Scott Wiener voted in favor of ousting Mirkarimi. Lee had needed the support of at least nine supervisors to sustain the charges, which stem from a domestic violence incident, and remove Mirkarimi.

One of the most-watched votes was that of Olague, whom Lee appointed to Mirkarimi’s former District 5 seat and is facing a tough election in November. In a statement she said that Mirkarimi made “an egregious mistake,” but “I cannot find that his actions were executed through his authority as a sheriff.”

Mirkarimi, who didn’t respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning, October 10, served for seven years on the board before being elected to the sheriff ’s post last November. The official misconduct stems from a December 31, 2011 incident in which he bruised the arm of his wife, Eliana Lopez. She has disputed the charges. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and is un-

<<

Murder

From page 2

She said as one of his specialties, Spray “was assigned to people who were very, very difficult to get along with. They were volatile.” She said he was “always courteous to these people who other people were fearful of or turned away from.”

Blanck visited a hospitalized Spray a couple of times after the August assault. She said his head was “flat above his forehead. It was just flat there.

There was no skull cap.”

Mogan, who also saw Spray after the assault, said Stewart visited often.

He said the first time Stewart saw Spray, “they had to ask him to leave the ICU.” Stewart “was crying, and he was beside himself,” Mogan said.

Part of Spray’s skull had been removed because of the swelling, he said. During one visit, “He brought a baseball cap to put on Rex, because he said he didn’t like looking at his head,” Mogan said.

Kinchley, 63, said he and Spray were close friends while they were both active in the Service Employees International Union Local 790. (He said Local 790 became part of what’s

<<

Family images

From page 10

hear it, essentially? Well, you make sure everyone knows you are the only heterosexual candidate in the race,” said Alameda resident Leland Traiman, a gay man who lives with his husband and two kids. “Even in small pieces of literature where you can’t put a photo there is a line that says Rob Bonta lives in Alameda with his wife and kids. He is running this clearly not so subtle homophobic campaign.”

Bonta’s campaign calls such allegations preposterous. Mark Capitola, a political consultant working for Bonta, noted not only does Bonta support marriage equality but also won the endorsement of the East Bay Stonewall Democrats, the main LGBT political club in Alameda County.

“When you design mailers you put in photos that demonstrate who your candidate is. The issue you are referring to is a silly issue that was brought up by a couple of gadflies in Alameda,” Capitola said. “That accusation being made is offensive to Rob and offensive to me and utterly ridiculous.”

October 11-17, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

dergoing counseling and serving three years of probation.

After the plea-bargain, Lee suspended Mirkarimi without pay in March on grounds of official misconduct. Lee transmitted the charges to the city’s Ethics Commission and asked that Mirkarimi be removed from his job.

After numerous hearings that stretched through the summer, the commission in August voted 4-1 in favor of recommending to the board that the official misconduct charges should be sustained.

Tuesday’s marathon board meeting – held on the eve of Domestic Violence Awareness Day – went late into the night before the supervisors voted.

“When determining whether to sustain the charges as issued by the mayor and recommended by the Ethics Commission, I worked backwards. I thought of it in the context of, in order to remove the sheriff, what would be necessary?” Olague said in her statement. “And in my opinion, the removal of any elected official from office requires that the mayor supply evidence that demonstrates, with great certainty, that the charter prescribed definition of official misconduct was violated.”

Campos said Wednesday morning that he agreed with Ethics Commission Chair Ben Hur, who voted against sustaining the official mis-

conduct charges against Mirkarimi. “... There has to be a narrow interpretation of the [city] charter, otherwise you’re opening the door wide for potential abuse in the future,” Campos said.

“I find the conduct of Sheriff Mirkarimi egregious and wrongful, but under the definition of official misconduct, as wrongful as it was, it wasn’t official,” Campos added.

But Wiener disagreed.

“I think that being convicted of domestic violence disqualifies you from being the chief elected law enforcement officer for San Francisco,” Wiener said Wednesday. “I think it’s a big deal. We all believe in rehabilitation, and restorative justice and forgiveness, but that doesn’t mean that there are no consequences. I just don’t think you can effectively serve as sheriff as someone who’s been convicted of domestic violence.”

The mayor was not pleased with the board’s action, saying he “strongly disagreed” with the votes of Avalos, Campos, Kim, and Olague.

“I believe, and the Ethics Commission and a majority of the Board of Supervisors agrees with me, that the facts clearly demonstrate that Ross Mirkarimi’s actions and his domestic violence related conviction falls below the ethical conduct we expect of our elected sheriff and constitutes official misconduct.”

He added, “The board’s decision returns a convicted domestic batterer to lead the sheriff ’s office, and I am concerned about our city’s nationally-recognized domestic violence programs. I will do everything in my power to ensure that abusers continue to be held accountable and that victims and witnesses of domestic violence will not be silenced.”

David Waggoner, one of Mirkarimi’s attorneys, said Wednesday that he’s “very, very glad” about the board’s vote, “but at the same time, there’s a lot of work to be done” and “fences to be mended.”

“Absolutely, we do not want the board’s vote to send any message that this city is not serious about domestic violence,” Waggoner said.

“But at the same time, the overturning of the will of the people can only be done when it’s absolutely clear that there was official misconduct, that a public official abused the power of his or her office, and that was simply not shown here,” he added.

It is not clear when Mirkarimi will return to work.

“It’s going to take some time for the logistics to be worked out in order for the transition to occur,” he said. “We have every confidence” that Vicki Hennessy, who’s been serving as interim sheriff, and Mirkarimi “will work together in the most professional manner to ensure a smooth transition.”

At the board meeting, several supervisors questioned attorneys representing the mayor and Mirkarimi about whether Mirkarimi had committed official misconduct.

Deputy City Attorney Sherri Kaiser said, “It’s not a hard call” to make, and she said that given the offense and Mirkarimi’s sentence, as someone who oversees the city’s jails, there’s a clear relationship to his job.

Waggoner said the sheriff had made “a serious and terrible mistake,” but Lee’s decision was “without basis in the law.’”

Kaiser said, “It is not just a mistake. ... It’s a crime, it’s a serious crime.”

Many people lined up in the packed board chambers Tuesday to make public comments, including former Mayor Art Agnos, who spoke in support of Mirkarimi.

“As a former mayor, I know extraordinary power. ... I never had this kind of power, and no one should,” said Agnos.

Another man said what Mirkarimi and his family have suffered is “enough,” and removing him from his job would be “irresponsible.”

Several people, including advocates for victims of domestic violence, spoke against reinstating Mirkarimi.

One woman told supervisors “not to be scared” and encouraged them to vote against Mirkarimi. She was loudly booed. ▼

now known as SEIU Local 1021.)

Kinchley estimated that Local 790 had 30,000 members, including nurses and other workers, when Spray was elected president about 10 years ago.

He said he “never” sensed any trouble between the two men.

“They always seemed clearly fond of each other and playful with each other,” Kinchley said.

Kinchley, who estimated it had been six years since he and Spray “had any kind of long conversation,” visited Spray a couple times when he was in the hospital at UCSF-Parnassus. He said Stewart was in communication with Spray’s sister in Indiana as they tried to figure out “how long they would continue to have the doctors provide support to keep Rex alive, and it was very clear that Tim was totally stressed out about making that decision, as anybody would be.”

According to Blanck, Spray died after his sister, Stewart, and medical staff decided to remove his feeding tube.

Spray’s sister didn’t respond to an interview request.

Spray had apparently recently worked at a South of Market mental health clinic. Calls to the agency weren’t returned.

Some trouble

“sporadically.”

“Usually, he tried to avoid Rex if he was drinking, because Rex didn’t like it,” he said.

“Tim would kind of act goofy when he’d been drinking, but never violent or threatening,” Mogan said.

He said that after Stewart had knee surgery within the last year, he told him “rather proudly” that he was clean and sober.

Stewart appeared in court September 27, soon after his arrest, looking haggard, with an unshaven face and bags under his eyes. He appeared agitated as he conferred with an attorney before his hearing began, and stood up before he was instructed to. After a bailiff told him to be seated, Stewart said, “I know what to say” and sat back down.

Stewart went to Alaska several times a year as a commercial fisherman and “made good money,” Mogan said. He also did odd jobs in San Francisco.

Mogan said Spray told him of private retirement accounts that he’d set up. Spray indicated to him that Stewart was the beneficiary and

told him, “If anything happens to me, I hope you’ll help Tim manage the money,” Mogan said.

Blanck said Spray had discussed retirement with her. She estimated that he had $400,000 in retirement and other funds. She wasn’t sure Stewart would have known about the money, and she indicated that she didn’t think it would have been a plausible motive for him to kill Spray.

“I also don’t think he’s able to make a plan and stick with it to kill someone,” Blanck, who usually saw Stewart “in passing” and described him as “goofy and jovial,” said. “...

He’s not the planner type.”

Stewart is in custody in San Francisco County jail on $3 million bail.

His next court date is Friday, October 12 for a status update. Assistant District Attorney John Rowland is the prosecutor assigned to the case.

Anyone with information in the case may contact police Sergeant Jon Kasper, or Inspectors Michael Morley or Michael Philpott at (415) 553-1145 or give information anonymously at (415) 575-4444. Police have declined to release Stewart’s booking photo.▼

The only thing his wedding photo is meant to signal is that he is a person who is married, said Capitola.

“No one should be trying to find some deeper meaning in it,” he said.

As for Guillen, he told the B.A.R. that he hasn’t been focused on Bonta’s mailers and that voters rarely ask about his family status.

“I understand what maybe they are trying to do. I agreed to run a positive campaign,” said Guillen, who is single. “I hope he sticks with his pledge as well.”

Similar to Bonta’s literature, Guillen has used images of him with kids to play up his education background and signal schools will be a top priority for him in Sacramento.

“What is resonating with folks here is they want someone who will stand up for progressive values,” he said. “People want a fighter up in Sacramento and I have demonstrated that. That is what is going to make the difference at the end of the day.”

Alice Kessler, Equality California’s legislative advocate, finds the questions raised about Bonta’s mailers surprising. While the statewide LGBT group endorsed Guillen, Bonta scored a 100 percent on the

LGBT issues EQCA asked candidates.

“I am a little surprised there are these accusations of homophobia.

They don’t jibe with our interactions with Mr. Bonta,” said Kessler.

“I think he would be a strong LGBT vote and ally if he is elected to the Legislature.”

The debate over images is puzzling, said Kessler, since it raises the question if LGBT candidates should not showcase their families in their campaign materials. Why shouldn’t LGBT candidates include pictures of their family or significant others if they have them, questioned Kessler.

“The other thing personally I find dissonant here is it is not like LGBT people don’t have families. If a candidate who is LGBT has kids, I assume they may have their picture in their mailer,” said Kessler. “For me, I am not connecting how having a picture of your family would mean you are homophobic.”

As more LGBT people come out and seek public office, the issue of how they depict their families, as well as how their opponents portray their own loved ones, will continue to be parsed. At its trainings for LGBT candidates the Victory Fund

spends considerable time on the topic to prepare those seeking to enter politics how to handle it.

“It was definitely something they covered in fair amount of detail,” said Sabrina Brennan, an out lesbian who is married and attended a 2011 training in Chicago.

As she seeks a harbor commission seat in San Mateo County, Brennan has been very open about having a wife, both at campaign forums and on her website. But Brennan said there are limits to how much of her

private life she is willing to share.

“I am not sure I would want to put my wedding photo on any mailers.

That feels a little too personal,” she said. “I do see people using family photos and baby photos. I can understand why people would want to share those images in their mailers.”

So far her sexual orientation really hasn’t come up in her race.

“Nobody ever asks me about it,” said Brennan. “I feel I am pretty darn out and I don’t see it as a problem.”▼

Blanck said Spray “compartmentalized his life.” She said he never told his family that he was gay, about his relationship with Stewart, or about a son he had from a previous relationship.

“I think there was a part of him that wanted a little excitement in his life, and I think Tim was the excitement,” Blanck said.

It appears that the excitement led to trouble at least once. San Francisco Superior Court records indicate that in 2008 the couple was evicted from their Market Street apartment after Stewart was seen on video stealing a refrigerator from the building’s loading dock.

Patrick Babcock, 32, who lives several units down the hall from Spray and Stewart’s Ellis Street apartment, said he’d never heard any signs of trouble between the two men, but he noted he has two children and there’s often other noise in the neighborhood.

Babcock said that both men were nice, but he said Stewart seemed to have “lived hard,” and he’d sometimes seen him drunk in the afternoon.

Mogan said Stewart drank

Money

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Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034576600

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034590100

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034569400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CITY TRAVEL AND TOUR, 1039 Grant Ave. #203, SF, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a general partnership and is signed U Win Myint & Sio Weng. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/11/12.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/11/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MARIE MAR, 1710 27th Ave., SF, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Donna Marie Romagnoli. 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 09/18/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, 1597 Haight St., SF, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Soul Patch 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 09/05/12.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034578300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: H & R CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, 1946 44th Ave., SF, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a general partnership and is signed Hsi Chou Yu & Richard Yu. 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 09/11/12.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034583700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BUBBLE REAL ESTATE, 420 Union St., SF, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation and is signed North Beach Native, Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/13/12.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/14/12.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034583600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VENDINI TICKETS; VENDINI TIX; WALLETINI; 660 Market St. 4th Fl., SF, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation and is signed Vendini Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/14/12.

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034579700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SIMA CONSULTANCY, 36 Oakwood St. #6, SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Saiman Hsu. 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 09/12/12.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034581500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SCAN@WORK, 540A Shotwell St., SF, CA 94110.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Calvin Yam. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/13/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/13/12.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034582300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FIVE STAR ROOTER & PLUMBING CO., 1331 20th Ave., SF, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Zi Xian Liu. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/13/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/13/12.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034583400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ALFAJORES NARCISO, 27 Flood Ave., SF, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Patricia Narisco. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/05/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/14/12.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034587200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LIBROS DE FE, 435 Edinburg St., SF, CA 94112.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Blanca L. Menjivar. 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 09/17/12.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034589300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MORELOS LANDSCAPE SERVICES, 128 Uranus Ave., Hayward, CA 94544. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Abel Morelos. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/18/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/18/12.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012

October 11-17, 2012 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034579900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CONNECTIONS SAN FRANCISCO, 424 Clay St., SF, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a limited liability company and is signed Battery & Clay Associates, 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 09/12/12.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034583800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ECLIPSE ACOUSTICS, 263 18th Ave., SF, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a limited liability company and is signed Travis Media Group LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/13/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/14/12.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034564200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 49TH PARALLEL PRODUCTIONS, 674 Ivy St., SF, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a husband & wife and is signed Katy W. Newton & Sean L. Connelley. 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 08/31/12.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034562600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IZZY CHAN CONSULTS, 2244 19th St., SF, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual and is signed Isabella Chan. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/31/12.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-031447000 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: VICTORIAN HEALTHCARE CENTER, 2121 Pine St., SF, CA 94115. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by Kindred Nursing Centers West, LLC (KY). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/17/08.

SEPT 20, 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES Dated 09/17/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: CAPO’S CHICAGO, LLC. 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 641 Vallejo St., SF, CA 94133-3918. Type of license applied for

47 - ON-SALE GENERAL EATING PLACE SEPT 27, OCT 4, 11, 2012

SEPT 27, OCT 4, 11, 18, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034597300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BATM MAINTENANCE, 56 Seville St., SF, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Alberto Benavides. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/21/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/21/12.

SEPT 27, OCT 4, 11, 18, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034576200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLD LIMOUSINES SERVICE, 76 Monterey Blvd., SF, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Victoria Nguyen.

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/10/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/10/12.

SEPT 27, OCT 4, 11, 18, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034600300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GREEN ELEMENT TREE CARE, 72-1/2 Saturn St., SF, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Heather Kailing Ellison.

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/24/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/24/12.

SEPT 27, OCT 4, 11, 18, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034599600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: F M G & H, 1413 Valencia St., SF, CA 94110.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Shane Liddick. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/06/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/21/12.

SEPT 27, OCT 4, 11, 18, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034598000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TOTAL RESPONSE AND PROTECTION SERVICES, 1943 28th Ave., SF, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Rambo Security Services Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/21/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/21/12.

SEPT 27, OCT 4, 11, 18, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034582500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FITNESS SF CASTRO, 2301 Market St., SF, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Superblock Fitness Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/13/12.

SEPT 27, OCT 4, 11, 18, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034582400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FITNESS SF SOMA, 1001 Brannan St., SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Brannan Street Fitness Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/13/12.

SEPT 27, OCT 4, 11, 18, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034594700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THOMAS OGAWA DDS, 180 Montgomery St. #2440, SF, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Leila Azad, DDS, Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/04/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/20/12.

SEPT 27, OCT 4, 11, 18, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034582100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SCHNEIDER INVESTMENTS, LLC, 117 Sanchez St., SF, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Schneider Investment, 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 09/13/12.

SEPT 27, OCT 4, 11, 18, 2012

SEPT 27, OCT 4, 11, 18, 2012 NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES Dated 09/24/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: BALVANTBHAI VIRJIBHAI PATEL. 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 219 7th St., SF, CA 94103-4003. Type of license applied for

21 – OFF-SALE GENERAL OCT 4, 11, 18, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034605600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: S AND E CAFE, 2406 19th Ave., SF, CA 94116.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Wei Hong Liu. 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 09/26/12.

OCT 4, 11, 18, 25, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034610500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ART ATTACK SF, 2722 A Hyde St., SF, CA 94109.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed James Capadona. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/27/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/27/12.

OCT 4, 11, 18, 25, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034615900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CARMELINA’S TAQUERIA, 500 Parnassus Ave., SF, CA 94143. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Karim Salgado. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/02/02. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/01/12.

OCT 4, 11, 18, 25, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034609800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE LITLE CHIHUAHUA MEXICAN RESTAURANT, 581 Valencia St., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TLC Foods Valencia 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 09/27/12.

OCT 4, 11, 18, 25, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034619300

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-031466200 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: S & E CAFE, 2406 19th Ave., SF, CA 94116. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed by Li, Choi & Fong Inc. (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/24/08.

OCT 4, 11, 18, 25, 2012 NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR CHANGE IN OWNERSHIP OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE LICENSE Dated 09/26/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: NICARAGUA RESTAURANT INCORPORATED. 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 3015 Mission St., SF, CA 94110-4501. Type of license applied for

41 - ON-SALE BEER & WINE - EATING PLACE OCT 11, 2012 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 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-034628300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EXECUTIVE CHOICE TRANSPORTATION, 690 Cesar Chaves St., SF, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Damone H. Smith. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/02/12.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/02/12.

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.

OCT 4, 11, 18, 25, 2012

OCT 11, 18, 25, NOV 1, 2012

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Vol. 42 • No. 41 • October 11-17, 2012

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NOT MINDING HIS OWN BUSINESS ‘This World is Not My Home: Photographs by Danny Lyon’

by Sura Wood

I

Danny Lyon/Magnum Photos, courtesy the Edwynn Houk Gallery

“What Hopes Have Perished with You My Son (In Memory of Johnnie Sanchez, 1960-83)” (1986), a collage of chromogenic and gelatin silver prints by Danny Lyon.

n stark contrast to his verbal stream-of-consciousness and stoner delivery, photographer Danny Lyon’s pictures have a bracing clarity and intensity that gets you in the gut. This World is Not My Home, a small show at the de Young Museum of over 60 photographs and montages dating from 1962 to the Occupy Movement in 2011, touches on various aspects of Lyon’s five-decade career. A writer and street photographer, a filmmaker who has made a dozen films including a short titled Murderers, he’s a student of history and all-around acerbic observer of the American scene. Lyon has a longstanding – and some might say risky – practice of befriending and allying himself with his subjects. Inspired by the unvarnished realism of Walker Evans, he doesn’t subscribe to the notion of journalistic detachment, a concept he labels “the myth of impartiality.”

Although he acknowledges having “an ethical or ideological motive” for each project he has undertaken, and he’s not afraid to assert that the country “is quickly going down the shit-hole of history,” and if it’s not possible to pick up a camera or a pen without taking this into account, it’s difficult to suss out the full implications of his choices, But whether riding with motorcycle gangs in the Midwest, bonding with death-row inmates, surveying the ruined buildings of Lower Manhattan with a 4x5 camera and tripod in tow, or moving among abandoned children in Colombia, one of whom is shown here casually taking a drag from a cigarette, Lyon’s lack of emotional distance hasn’t affected his acuity or the technical finesse of the imagery. As he explains on his blog, his camera has been “a tool of investigation, a reason to travel, to not mind my own business, and often to get into trouble.”

See page 29 >>

Promiscuous in Mill Valley Highlights from the 35th Mill Valley Film Festival, week 2

by David Lamble

T Hagar Ben Asher as Tamar in The Slut, a spirited carnal rondo with three local guys.

MVFF

he final four days of the 35th Mill Valley Film Festival offer a host of opportunities to escape the great American culture bubble, as well as some choice treats inside the bubble, including the new Stevie Nicks doc In Your Dreams, with a guest appearance by the goddess herself, plus nightly performances at Sweetwater Music Hall (Mill Valley) and closing-night films.

The Slut goes from an unusual opening sequence in which a horse bolts its comfortable paddock to a final moment

when a God’s-eye camera observes a young woman examining the high cost of her own pursuit of erotic freedom.

Israeli filmmaker Hagar Ben Asher takes us to a dusty rural chicken farm where a youngish woman, Tamar (Asher), spends every moment that she’s not selling eggs or looking after her two schoolage girls in a spirited carnal rondo with three hungry local guys. This moveable feast – depicted in an unflinching style comparable to Bernardo Bertolucci’s See page 29 >>

RN! RETU A E R BAY A ANT H P M TRIU

WINNER! 2010 TONY AWARD

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BRYAN FENKART, FELICIA BOSWELL AND THE TOUR CAST OF MEMPHIS

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<< Out There

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2012

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Queer eye for art history

by Roberto Friedman

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uthor Camille Paglia burst upon the academic scene in 1990 with her book Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, which shook up contemporary criticism with its cutting critique. She parlayed her fame or notoriety into the position University Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at the University of Arts in Philadelphia (from which, full disclosure, Out There’s nephew graduated this past spring).

Paglia has said that she was astounded that the most-used textbook for college-level arthistory survey courses, the H.W. Jansen, dates back generations. So she has produced a new one, Glittering Images: A Journey through Art from Egypt to Star Wars (Pantheon), that’s due to be released this week.

Paglia is the only art historian we can think of who would include, in her essay on Anthony Van Dyck’s

portrait of “Lord John Stuart and his Brother, Lord Bernard Stuart” (1638), the fact that “the brothers’ grandfather the First Duke of Lennox, also named Esmé Stuart, was a shrewd political operator rumored to be the gay lover of his cousin the king James I.” Does this make any difference to the portrait’s place in art history? Probably not, but it’s nice for a gay boy to know.

The book is a whirlwind tour of art history from ancient cultures through the Renaissance, the Rococo, the Romantics, the Impressionists, Picasso, Pollock, Warhol, up to George Lucas (we’ll get to that in a moment), presented with little context, or indeed, breathing room. Gay readers will appreciate the author’s open eye to gay art history. “Despite homosexuality being both illegal and persecuted,” she writes, “there was evidently a thriving gay subculture in Florence, clustered around salons of Neoplatonic philosophy.

It was from this sophisticated milieu

promoting Greek love that Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo would emerge.” As if from a gay clamshell.

Nowhere in Jansen or Gombrich (another standard art-history text) will you ever find the aesthetic observation, “In Greek art and culture, a small penis was valued as a mark of intellect; a large penis was thought comical and animalistic.”

Paglia also brings her homo-awareness to the modern era: “From the moment he arrived in New York, Warhol had been openly gay, with a whiny, effeminate, ‘swish’ manner that irritated the macho Abstract Expressionists. Closeted gay artists like Johns and Rauschenberg coldly rebuffed him.” This is refreshing candor in a college text.

That said, Paglia’s nods towards Performance Art and later trends are sketchy at best. And her concluding essay on Lucas’ Revenge of the Sith as being the culmination of the march of fine arts is ludicrous, to be kind. If modern cinema is to be included in this survey (a huge field of study in itself), the discerning professor can point to many finer examples of the medium. Oh well, as the strippers explain in song in Gypsy, in order to have a successful professional career, “You gotta get a gimmick.” Paglia has that covered in palettes.

Pantheon Books

“Lord John Stuart and his Brother, Lord Bernard Stuart” (ca. 1638)

by Anthony Van Dyck, oil on canvas, National Gallery, London, Great Britain.

Russian around We had another great musical experience last Friday night, attending the San Francisco Symphony concert in which hot young Russian guest conductor Vasily Petrenko offered Part, Respighi, and with soloist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Concert over, we headed over to the Herbst Theatre for the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra’s second annual LGBT reception following their performance of Henry Purcell’s tragicomic semi-opera Dioclesian.

Music director Nicholas McGegan greeted the crowd, and introduced the many distinguished LGBTs amongst us, including PBO directors, musicians, board members and audience. We sipped vino and munched on cheese provided by the Bob Ross Foundation’s largesse.

The Philharmonia Baroque has just released their CD recording of the Brahms Serenade No. 2 in A Major and Serenade No. 1 in D

Pantheon Books

“Portrait of Andrea Doria as Neptune” (ca. 1530) by Agnolo Bronzino, oil on canvas, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy.

Major, which we have been enjoying listening to. We turn it up and lose ourselves in it. And we marvel at the gay music world we inhabit, historically informed and socially forward-thinking. That’s music to our (thirsty) ears.

On Sunday, we were in the house at the ACT Theater for the onenight-only staged reading of 8, the play chronicling the historic trial in the federal constitutional challenge to California’s Prop 8. The play was written by Academy Award–winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. The cast included such boldface names as Luke MacFarlane and Patricia Wettig (Brothers & Sisters), Holland Taylor (Two and

a Half Men), Cal Shakes artistic director Jonathan Moscone, Speaker of the Assembly John A. Perez, SFAF CEO Neil Giuliano, LGBT activist Cleve Jones, and Black himself. In the audience: Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker and the plaintiff same-sex couples, heroes all.

Prop us up In a fortuitous bit of timing, producer Marc Huestis tells us that Skyfall, the new James Bond film that celebrates Bond’s 50th anniversary, is being released on Nov. 9, the very day that Lana Wood is arriving in SF. She appears as part of See page 30 >>

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Music >>

October 11-17, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Everything comes together at the hall

by Philip Campbell

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an Francisco Symphony Season 101 is clipping right along, and the last two weeks have been filled with many notable highlights. Subscription concerts have included the local premiere of a commissioned work by a Bay Area native, a transcendent performance of a 20th century masterpiece, and the welcome return to Davies Symphony Hall of a talented young guest conductor.

Samuel Carl Adams is the son of composer John Adams and photographer Deborah O’Grady (who met while working with the SFS). Born in San Francisco and growing up in Berkeley, young Samuel now resides in Brooklyn, NY. His pedigree has certainly guided his path, but the West Coast premiere of his 2012 composition Drift and Providence, co-commissioned by the SFS and New World Symphony in Miami, proves he is ready to speak with his own voice.

MTT premiered the evocatively titled score in Miami, and will again lead the orchestra in performances at Carnegie Hall in March. As 20 minutes of pensive reflection with interesting moments of orchestral and computer-enhanced sounds, Drift and Providence should find its way onto many concert programs in the future.

Like his famous dad, Samuel would seem to have an extra talent for titling his own work. In five continuous sections, Drift travels through Embarcadero – Drift I – Divisadero – Drift II – and the concluding movement, Providence. Locals will know where both the place and the street figure physically in San Francisco, but Adams is actually playing on their meaning in Spanish. Embarcadero is a wharf, and Divisadero is a high place with a view that may also be a place of rest during an excursion.

There is easily audible play be-

Courtesy SFS

Conductor Vasily Petrenko.

Deborah O’Grady

Composer Samuel Carl Adams is ready to speak with his own voice.

tween the sounds of the natural and the man-made, woods and metals, and even the contrasting pace of the East and West Coasts. The composer performed an unnotated electronic part from a laptop computer that was subtle to the point of virtually going unnoticed, although he was purportedly enhancing amplified frequencies from the percussion section.

In keeping with his titles, Adams brings listeners on a journey that emerges from a foggy beginning with an attention-grabbing whoosh, and continues with deceptive languor through vignettes of sound, silence, and brief tunes that culminate in Providence (literally, wisdom or far-

sightedness, not Rhode Island). I’m not sure if Providence convincingly achieves what the composer deems “a summation,” but the increased and sustained volume signals a conclusion that also remains by design “a little bit unclear, a little ambiguous.”

Looking with pride and admiration from their balcony seats, Mom and Pop Adams saw their talented son receive a hearty ovation from both audience and orchestra. It may not have been as stunning a splash as Big Daddy made years ago, but clearly we were in on the start of another big career. And by the way, you would never guess by the sound of it that Drift and Providence was writ-

ten by John Adams’ kid.

After intermission came an absolutely wonderful performance of the Mahler Symphony No. 5. We can expect that MTT has this score and composer well within his grasp by now, but this was an exceptionally meaningful and considered rendition, and it was also marked by some of the best playing I have ever heard from the orchestra – and that is saying quite a lot. When we are writing our season wrap in 2013, there will be several gold stars next to a Mahler presentation that was not only exquisitely beautiful, but deeply moving. Sometimes everything comes together in a single performance, and here was a night that earned an extended standing ovation.

Booster shot Last week, Vasily Petrenko (you know, the Russian conductor who looks a little like Ryan Gosling) returned to DSH for a third visit that did his admirable reputation no favors with me, but seemed to raise the temperature of most everyone

else in attendance.

Starting with Arvo Part’s brief and once-ubiquitous Fratres for Strings and Percussion (1977), Petrenko renewed our faith in his ability to work with the orchestra. He really got another boost proving he can also support a soloist sympathetically. French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet made his SFS debut with Bartok’s scrumptious Piano Concerto No. 3, and the partnership was terrific.

Whenever I hear one of Bartok’s wonderful concertos for piano (or violin, for that matter), I can’t help but wonder why more soloists don’t attempt them. The Third Piano Concerto has it all for a 20th-century piece: lots of snazzy tunes, a whiff of Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and even George Gershwin. Bavouzet had a blast tearing through the glittering work, and he grabbed the audience with his energy and delightful interpretation. Petrenko was also in sync, and the performance sent us out to intermission with big smiles on our faces.

We returned to two of Respighi’s most famous tone poems or soundtracks or whatever: Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. It is hard to approach these immensely popular works without betraying a little musical snobbism, and even if I think they are not unlike the paintings of Thomas Kinkade in their kitschy and obvious appeal, there are an awful lot of listeners who think they are just what classical music should be.

If a profusion of pleasant melody and admittedly gorgeous orchestration is what those listeners mean, then I can agree Respighi hits the mark. I personally draw the line at canned birdsong. Still, if you’re going to go there, it might as well be with Petrenko, and the happy crowd surrounding me reacted as if they simply couldn’t hear enough. Who am I to go around popping balloons?▼

<< Books

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2012

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Pygmalion and Galatea

by Tavo Amador

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he was once among the most famous Americans. Joan Fontaine claimed she was “dangerous to know.”

Noel Coward, however, “found her dynamic, gay, courageous, insanely generous, and to me, always kind.” She never came out as a lesbian, but she and Dorothy “Dickie” Fellowes-Gordon were a well-known couple for 50 years. She fascinated royalty, high and café society, yet retained her common touch and humanity. Sam Staggs’ Inventing Elsa Maxwell: How an Irrepressible Nobody Conquered High Society, Hollywood, the Press, and the World (St. Martin’s Press, $27.99) brilliantly recounts this improbable life.

Born in 1881 in Keokuk, Iowa, the only child of a prominent family, she was reared on San Francisco’s Nob Hill. Yet Elsa (nee Elsie) insisted that

her background was humble, a Cinderella who never made it to the ball.

She may have done this to make her later success appear more remarkable. Short, heavy, plain, she was nonetheless popular – her personality enlivened any event. She was a gifted singer and pianist, equally at home with popular and classical music. Her knowledge of opera was prodigious. On the night of the 1906 earthquake, she had an engagement with Enrico Caruso.

While still young, she moved to New York, supporting herself as a singer/pianist in clubs and at private parties. Her San Francisco social network opened doors for her in Manhattan. All her life, Maxwell had a gift for friendship. Some called her a climber, but Staggs points out that she wasn’t interested in status as much as she was in having fun – and showing others how to do so. She was imaginative, tireless, and thus became the most celebrated partygiver of the first half of the 20th century. She hosted legendary affairs in Paris, London, New York, Monte Carlo, Venice, and other chic places.

Staggs convincingly argues that she created modern public relations.

He excels at depicting how the elites celebrated during the Belle Epoque, the jazz-infused 1920s, the Great Depression, the Second World War, and the pre-jet-set 50s. Maxwell, who became a widely-read newspa-

per columnist, helped set the tone for those decades. Readers trusted her judgments and enjoyed her stories, followed her advice in several books and articles, and made her autobiography a bestseller. Hollywood beckoned with Elsa Maxwell’s Hotel for Women (1939), starring Ann Sothern and Linda Darnell.

Her friends included Alma de Bretteville Spreckels (founder of SF’s Legion of Honor museum), C.Z. Guest, the Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth), the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (she had known HRH as Prince of Wales and as Edward VIII), Princess Margaret, and King Paul of the Hellenes and his wife Frederika of Hanover. Prince Aly Kahn asked Maxwell to invite Love Goddess Rita Hayworth to a party. Their subsequent elopement and tumultuous marriage was frontpage news in the early 1950s. She helped Monaco’s princely Grimaldi family make Monte Carlo an international destination.

For years, she resided at Manhattan’s Waldorf Astoria, paying little or no rent because she brought the hotel welcome publicity. She was a popular guest on Jack Paar’s TV talk show in the 1950s.

Even if her greatest achievements were ephemeral, she was far from superficial. For example, she raised huge sums to aid the Allied causes in both World Wars. Unlike many

of her upper-crust English and American friends, she denounced Fascism. She was an early, vocal critic of American racism.

She was, however, a product of her era regarding homosexuality. Staggs compellingly argues that Elsa and Dickie, a member of the British gentry with a wealthy stepfather, had an open marriage. Tall, striking, Dickie periodically had affairs with men. By 1912, they were living together in London and remained companions until Maxwell’s death.

Among her close friends were Coward, Cole Porter, Alexis, Baron de Rede (considered the most beautiful kept boy of the era, who inherited half the estate of his fabulously wealthy married lover, Chilean industrialist Arturo LopezWillshaw), all homosexuals who never came out publicly, which to Maxwell seemed appropriate. She disapproved of openly gay men like Jimmy Woolworth Donahue. She herself was targeted by columnist

Walter Winchell, who wrote, “The lez said about [her], the better.”

Staggs compellingly discusses her infatuation with Maria Callas. Maxwell criticized Callas’ 1956 Metropolitan Opera debut in Norma, and her subsequent Tosca. When Callas triumphed in Lucia di Lammermoor, however, Maxwell extolled her performance. Then Callas, who had transformed herself from an overweight, coarse-looking woman to a slim, soignee beauty, asked to meet Maxwell, praising her candor and charming See page 21 >>

Frightening childhood

by David-Elijah Nahmod

B

ay Area artist and author Scott Terry will appear at Books Inc. in the Castro tonight (Thurs., Oct. 11) in a book-launch party for Cowboys, Armageddon, and the Truth,

How a Gay Child Was Saved From Religion, a chilling memoir of his youth.

Terry is a man of many talents. In Hayward, CA, where he lives, he’s known as a “gentleman farmer.” He owns a small property in the quiet

Bay Area suburb, where he rents out two homes and grows a variety of vegetables in the backyard. His produce is happily donated to the local food bank.

Outside Hayward, Terry has been known primarily as an artist. The homepage of his website offers this thought-provoking quote from artist Pablo Picasso: “Art is not made to decorate apartments. Art is an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy.” Terry lived up to this creed when he created one of his best-known pieces, the Proposition 8 Project. Proposition 8 is the California voter-approved ban on same-sex weddings.

“The art piece is comprised of 250 wooden blocks, some wrapped in Yes on 8 propaganda, and others wrapped in Biblical text,” he explains. “They are arranged in chronological and topographical order, beginning with a miniature Bible in the center and yellow blocks rising out of the chaos, and winding their way through a sea of scripture.”

Scripture is a touchy subject for Terry. He spent his boyhood in a virulently homophobic, fundamentalist home. His Jehovah’s Witness father was not kind to him. There was a lot of abuse, as he recalls in his book.

“I wrote the book out of frustration with religion,” he said. “One of the tenets of Jehovah’s Witness is that you have to separate yourself from ‘worldly people.’ They primarily say we’re in the last days – they say it more intensely than other religions. I quote their dogma in the book. People who are in this religion don’t have the sense to ask if this is the truth.”

Some readers may cringe as Terry recounts the horrifying way he was treated. “At 16, I was only allowed to eat what I was given. Bedtime was at 8 p.m. When you live like that, you think this is how it is. I was just trying to survive.” He and his sister were close at the time, and often stole food for each other. His sister has since returned to the faith, and they no longer speak.

There were a few bright spots.

His grandparents, who were not “in the truth,” reported bruises to the police when Terry was six. His father told them that they’d never see their grandchild again. “It’s easy to separate yourself from others when you think the end is near,” Terry observed.

He continues to speak highly of his grandmother, with whom he reconnected after leaving the faith. “As with the Prop 8 piece, I got the idea for the book the day my grandma died. She was such a huge part of my life as a kid.”

Terry survived his childhood. He walked away from his father and never looked back. Now in a committed relationship, he’s a staunch See page 21 >>

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Theatre>>

October 11-17, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Shocking, truly shocking

by Richard Dodds

rapher from Paris Match, and the results are over-the-top mayhem.

Blackwood is the madder of the two scientists, with DeMarco as his acquiescent colleague who suffers psychedelic visions of life-sized rats and flies. Lisa Appleguard is the hypervivacious landlady, and Suval is the Chanel-channeling photographer.

Blackwood and DeMarco direct with ample swish and swagger.

With an adaptable set by James Blackwood, a panoply of costumes

A

former chapel was the location of Paris’ original Le Theatre du Grand-Guignol, and the confessional-like boxes once reserved for nuns to watch services allegedly found new purposes. They could be used by those aroused by the proceedings as places to find full release, or alternately, as private vomitoria for those whose dinners were being aroused.

With its Shock Boxes and Turkish Lounges, Thrillpeddlers’ home venue at the Hypnodrome provides a variation on these sequestered arrangements, though the earlier uses no longer seem required. Laughter and applause are much likelier to be heard than groans or gasps as our homegrown Grand Guignol theater presents its 13th edition of Shocktoberfest.

Yes, blood does freely flow, and there are mad scientists and demented divas, but the Thrillpeddlers folks really are merry pranksters with a serving of macabre on the side. Two new plays anchor the current production, with a Grand Guignol classic, two musical numbers, and the traditional spook-show finale filling up the satisfying bill of fare.

Shocktoberfest 13 takes its subtitle, Bride of Death, from the new play that closes the first act. Written by Michael Phillis and co-conceived with Flynn DeMarco, it’s something like Sunset Boulevard on steroids. A legendary actress living in seclusion prepares for her comeback by inviting two journalists to her estate, and that it should be a dark and stormy night might not be much of a surprise. But there are big surprises as secrets unfold and then unfold some more.

Phillis and DeMarco play the journalists, a world-weary reporter and a star-struck photographer, and they are new meat (in more than one sense of the phrase) for a household that includes the unnaturally youthful actress Evelyn Maxwell (Bonni Suval), her creepy personal physician (Jim Jeske), an ominously mute butler (Rory Davis), her curiously affectionate son (Dalton Goulette), and a surly maid (Nancy French), in addition to characters played by Zelda Koznofski and Annie Larson whose identities should not be revealed here. Russell Blackwood, Thrillpeddlers’ artistic director, has staged the outlandish tale with a comedic zeal that is still able to preserve a poignant moment here and there.

A thoughtful touch is the title given to one of Evelyn Maxwell’s great stage triumphs, Coals of Fire, which, in fact,

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Elsa Maxwell

From page 20

her. Maxwell was smitten. “When I looked into those amazing eyes, I realized she is an extraordinary person.”

Henceforth, she exhausted superlatives in praising La Divina.

Callas’ feelings for Maxwell were complex. She was repelled by her lesbianism and privately called her “a fat old son of a bitch,” but seems to have needed her maternal-like approval – something she never got from her own mother. Maxwell hosted the party at which Callas met Aristotle Onassis, with fateful consequences for them both. Publicly, their relationship survived what was likely a spurned

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Scott Terry

From page 20

critic of religious fundamentalism and the emotional harm it inflicts on the lives of LGBT people. His powerfully written book has begun to generate buzz. The American Library Association has nominated the book for its Over the Rainbow Award, which acknowledges excellence in LGBT literature.

davidallenstudio.com

Flynn DeMarco, left, and Russell Blackwood play feuding research colleagues in The Twisted Pair, one part of Thrillpeddlers’ annual Shocktoberfest assortment of happy horror and musical interludes.

has an actual place in Grand Guignol history and happens to be the curtainraiser for Shocktoberfest 13. Frederick Witney had his short play accepted for production in London in 1922, but it was disallowed by the Lord Chamberlain. Even when Witney finally produced it himself in 1945, two pivotal moments had to be excised. But they are in place in the current presentation, which features Leigh Crow as a blind, elderly, and obese wife of a much younger man. We never meet him, but he is revealed also to be sharing the bed of the wife’s seemingly innocent companion (Koznofski), who must pay a high price for her treachery in director DeMarco’s moody staging.

Looking like a butch Wayne Newton in Las Vegas drag, Crow is back in fine form to open the second act with the musical production number “Those Beautiful Ghouls.” Recalling Sondheim’s “Those Beautiful Girls” from Follies, which recalled the Ziegfeld era, Scrumbly Koldewyn’s song zigs its way into rockabilly before zagging its way into a Frug frenzy as Crow musically introduces a bevy of ghouls, who flip out to D’Arcy Drollinger’s choreography.

The final play on the program definitely justifies the use of that

physical advance by Elsa, but after that Callas grew distant.

In 1961, while dancing the Twist with Onassis, Maxwell suffered a stroke. Her health declined, and she had financial anxieties. She had never been good with money. She died in 1963, leaving her estate, valued at $12,000 (about $100,000, when adjusted for inflation) to Dickie, who lived until 1991.

Even in today’s celebrity-obsessed culture, Elsa Maxwell would have been a media sensation. She was her own Pygmalion and Galatea. Staggs’ lavishly illustrated, well-researched biography, written in lively, pageturning prose, does justice to a remarkable life.▼

“We all know someone who was kicked out of the house for being gay. My book is about what I know about this from being a Jehovah’s Witness, and being from a cowboy family.”▼ Meet & greet Scott Terry on Thurs., Oct. 11, 7:30 p.m., at Books Inc., 2275 Market St. Info: 864-6777, www.booksinc.net/ SFCastro.

hoary adjective “madcap” in its cross between the mad-scientist scenario and a campus frolic. Rob Keefe’s The Twisted Pair, set in a rooming-house basement in 1953, starts off in erudite fashion as James D. Watson and Francis Crick’s discovery of the doublehelix structure of DNA is evoked and two low-rent scientists rue their ongoing failure to find fame.

Mix into this formula a super glue that invokes hallucinations, a need for fresh blood, a scientist forced to wear drag for Curie-style publicity, a randy landlady, a group of boarders in town for a collegiate rowing competition, and a fashion photog-

credited to one Alice Cunt, lighting

by Nicholas Torre, and numerous specialized credits in addition to the large cast, what Thrillpeddlers can pull off in a venue that barely seats 50 is both dastardly wondrous and venomously infectious.▼ Shocktoberfest 13: The Bride of Death will run at the Hypnodrome through Nov. 17. Tickets are $30-$35. Call 377-4202 or go to www.thrillpeddlers.com.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2012

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Film >>

Time tunnel

by David Lamble

T

he catch phrase “termination with extreme prejudice” has seldom had a more bizarre workout than in Looper, an astutely cast but muddled big-screen video game about a cadre of time-traveling bounty hunters, from the director of one of the past decade’s most delicious retro detective romps.

Rian Johnson loves seemingly wimpy heroes who unexpectedly

develop a backbone, guys who bleed when you hit them but never remove their teeth from your leg. The San Clemente native is also hooked on unlikely buddy-driven plots. In his breakout art-house hit Brick, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s high school shamus is paired with a super-nerdy informant, The Brain, a hyper-hip boy spy navigated with off-the-cuff swagger by Matt O’Leary. Looper kicks off with an even more promising “too cool for school” matchup between Gordon-Levitt’s Joe, a slightly jaded contract killer, and a buddy wrapped way too tight, Seth, a Paul Dano cameo that flips across the emotional scale from murderous hysteria to cowardly wheedling.

In 2072, when a “gunsel” has served his purpose for the mob, he’s dispatched 30 years back to where an assassin waits. Joe and Seth are club-hopping when Seth confesses he’s failed to execute a contract and kill his own future self that very day.

Seth fears he’ll be whacked by their boss, Abe (a nimble, snarky Jeff Daniels). Looper fetishizes its contract killings by having the hapless victims arrive with sacks over their heads, the killings unfolding on a mat that becomes a burial shroud.

Seth explains why this victim

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Joe in Looper: emotionally stunted.

spooked him.

“He was singing in that dog sack, a tune I used to sing as a kid. He told me that there was a new holy-terror boss man in the future who wants to close all the loops.”

“You let your loop run? That’s not good. I’ll give you some money, and then you’ll have to go.”

Joe goes to plead Seth’s case to Abe, but loses his nerve when it becomes apparent that loyalty to Seth will cost him a secret retirement stash of silver coins. Later, Joe confesses his betrayal in bed to a sassy rent girl: “I think I just let my best friend get killed tonight. Shit!”

Fans of Paul Dano have relished a decade where his characters have been attacked by cinema demons: beaten up by anti-Semitic schoolboys (L.I.E.), shot in the belly by a vengeful drug-dealer (Light and the Sufferer), cheated by a conflicted teacher (The Emperor’s Club), tossed out of a treehouse (The Bal-

lad of Jack and Rose), killed chasing a Thanksgiving goose (The Good Heart), dispatched by a bowlingpin-wielding madman (There Will Be Blood), attacked by a Christmas tree decoration-collecting bachelor (The Extra Man) and suckerpunched at a homeless shelter (Being Flynn). That Dano’s Looper fate, murdered by goons from a Philip K. Dick-style homage, doesn’t rate being included on this list is a clue to the flaws in Looper’s emotionally stunted story.

To affirm the movie’s male code, Joe’s betrayal of Seth has to rank up there with Bogart’s failure to save Peter Lorre’s “letters of transit”stealing fugitive in Casablanca.

Lorre is memorably dispatched by Vichy thugs, Seth’s torture-death slips by in the dark. With Seth’s departure, for at least the first hour, the film turns into a solipsistic exercise by movie boys who have become too enchanted with their digital paint-

box. Eventually a rifle-carrying farmwomen (a sturdy Emily Blunt) wakes us out of video-game stupor, with the aid of a boy with dangerous powers and unsavory motives.

Dano is sorely missed. Joe then lacks a supple sidekick who could have reduced the film’s many violations of the “show me, don’t tell me” screenwriting injunction. Maybe a cracking-wise Seth could have distracted us from the ensuing genre whiplash. Looper dissolves into a mind-bending stew of copycat film tropes. I swore I was witnessing a reboot of The Terminator, Blade Runner, Inception and even a nibble of Children of the Corn. Each of these tips of the cinema hat is carried off with panache and a minimum of winking. When Joe’s older self from the future (the ferocious Bruce Willis) is given an assault weapon and asked to wipe out a coven of craven loopers on a back alley, the dude comes through with aplomb. It’s a kick to watch Willis, as Joe 30 years older, chew on some mumblecore diner chat with his younger self before what feels like a cadre of Navy Seals invades the joint.

With the emotional arc of the movie depending on a cornfield showdown as a man puts a pistol to his head to avert an Orwellian future – Twilight Zone to the max – Looper makes its own kind of sense without making a difference in who we’re rooting for. Given its box-office spike (#2 with a bullet the first week), I suspect the boys will be seduced into running out a sequel before actually finishing the first installment.▼

On the Web>>

Radical ink

by Ernie Alderete

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uicide Boys is a tumblr site packed with gorgeous hunks.

While there is no stated criterion for inclusion, I would describe the hundreds of Suicide Boys as almost exclusively white European, with a smattering of European Hispanics, heavily tattooed, lean to the extreme, cute, minimally clothed, sometimes sporting round ear-plugs and the occasional nose ring.

Racially, Suicide Boys is the flipside of the Certified Hotties site, who are almost exclusively nonwhite: African American and Caribbean Latino, largely Dominican and Puerto Rican. Suicide Boys’ body ink is mostly massive, covering from one side of the body to the entire body. Some guys look like living, walking holy cards, decorated with religious iconography and quotes from mostly Christian religious texts.

Others take their inspiration from nature, gorgeous marine panoramas such as fish or stylized ocean waves. Birds in flight is another nature-inspired motif, perhaps aspiring to the freedom of the skies our sleek-feathered friends enjoy. Skulls on the torso, the Masonic eye within a pyramid from the reverse of our dollar bill, five-pointed stars on the chest and cobwebs at the elbows are also recurring themes.

Are the Suicide Boys friends of Dorothy? There’s no indication of their sexual preference, but there are no girlfriends, wives or other female companions on display. Theirs is a testosterone-charged, male-only universe.

A couple of the Suicide Boys have tattooed pistols at the waist, at first glance appearing to be real three-dimensional firearms tucked into their pants pointing down to the ground, as if held in an imagi-

Found on the Suicide Boys site, a testosterone-charged universe.

nary holster. One has a royal crown slightly visible emerging from below his waist-line, perhaps symbolic of his own crown jewels. Many have sayings or mottos tattooed, such as “Beauty is Only Skin Deep,” “Hope,” “Family,” “Never Surrender,” and “Et Tu, Brute?”

One of my favorite Suicide Boys

has waves of shockingly white or platinum hair, in sharp contrast to his dark-brown wraparound beard.

His gorgeous snow-white, hairless torso and stomach are almost entirely free of tats, framed by both arms inked from the wrist to the top of the shoulders with intricate multicolor designs.▼

▼

Music >>

October 11-17, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

SFGM Chorus to honor Savage & Jervis

by David-Elijah Nahmod

J

oin the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus for Crescendo, a benefit for their upcoming 35th season on Sun., Oct. 14. Festivities commence at the Four Seasons Hotel at Noon. The afternoon will include performances, brunch, an auction, and a preview of the new season. Part of the program will include giving awards to Dan Savage and Joe Jervis for their contributions to the community and to the Chorus itself.

“Crescendo is more than a party/ fundraiser,” said Tim Seelig, who currently serves as the Chorus’ artistic director and conductor. “It’s a great event. It’s a reflection of what SFGMC really is, and that’s social activism through music.”

The iconic Chorus gave its first public performance in 1978, on the very night Supervisor Harvey Milk was murdered. On the day of Milk’s death, the Chorus was scheduled to hold its fourth rehearsal. Flyers had been posted announcing their first performance. In the immediate aftermath of Milk’s death, they cancelled that night’s rehearsal and joined the vigil at City Hall. They were asked to sing. Singer/songwriter Holly Near, who wrote the song “Singing for Our Lives” on a napkin in a cab on the way to the vigil, joined them. The evening served as the official debut of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.

The Chorus has a history of performing a mix of classical, popular, and original pieces. Testimony, a recent collaboration between Broadway composer Stephen Schwarz and Dan Savage, was inspired by Savage’s It Gets Better project. Savage, who first came to prominence as a sex advice columnist, launched It Gets Better in order to provide a message of hope to bullied, suicidal LGBT youth.

Savage will attend Crescendo, where he’ll receive the Chorus’ Human Rights Champion Award. Blogger Joe Jervis of JoeMyGod fame will also be in attendance. Jervis is the recipient of the Chorus’ Media Champion Award.

Both men were easy selections, according to Seelig.

“Dan Savage was selected for his amazing and tireless work as the founder of the It Gets Better project and for his partnership with awardwinning composer Stephen Schwartz and SFGMC in the creation of Testimony.

“Joe Jervis was selected for his incredible work with his JoeMyGod blog. Joe uses this medium to educate, encourage and engage thousands of followers. He has been extremely generous to feature SFGMC on his blog.

His support also helped SFGMC Sean Chapin in his successful efforts to get both the Giants and the 49ers to create their own It Gets Better videos.”

“I’m thrilled and honored,” Savage told the B.A.R. in a brief phone interview. “I’m Catholic, so it’s a bit difficult for me to accept a compliment or an award with grace. I can hear Jesus screaming in my head, ‘You’re not worthy!’”

Jervis, who also chatted with the B.A.R., is delighted. “As a former San

Jeff Smith

It Gets Better creator Dan Savage: ‘I’m thrilled and honored.’

Franciscan, I couldn’t be more proud.

I have friends and readers in the Chorus.”

Jervis admits that he’s astonished at the level of popularity JoeMyGod has achieved. “It’s completely accidental,” he said. “I started to blog the same time everyone else did. A lot of people Facebook now. I stuck with the blog. It’s a place where all members of the community can come together and speak freely. I allow trollish comments, while other bloggers try to sanitize everything. People put their racism, homophobia and transphobia out there. Let’s deal with it.”

Savage said that, other than attending Crescendo, he’ll be spending most of his time in the city holed up in his hotel room, working on his new book.

The book, a collection of essays, is due out in the Spring. The author, always an advocate for LGBT youth, weighed in on the recent Boy Scout controversy, the Scouts’ refusal to bestow their Eagle Scout award on openly gay Scout Ryan Andersen. The Boy Scouts of America publicly admitted that Andersen’s sexual orientation was the deciding factor in this decision.

“The Boy Scouts are going to have to choose between bigotry and humanity,” Savage said. “The Boy Scouts are the Catholic Church in miniature. When people see them denying people what they’ve earned, it will cost them support.”

Seelig hopes that people will attend not only Crescendo, but other Chorus events throughout the season. Next year’s Pride events will include the Chorus’ presentation of Harvey Milk 2013: Living the Legacy, to be performed on June 27 & 28 at the Nourse Theater, 1955 Sutter St. The Chorus works very closely with the Harvey Milk Foundation, Seelig reports.▼ The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus fundraiser and party Crescendo, is Sun., Oct. 14, Noon, at the Four Seasons Hotel, 757 Market St. For more information, visit www.sfgmc.org.

JoeMyGod blogger Joe Jervis: ‘I couldn’t be more proud.’

<< Out&About

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2012

Gallery Walk

Shocktoberfest 13 @ Hypnodrome

transgender (Oct 13, 4pm, Manilatown Center, 868 Kearny St.); Pikit-Mata/Blind, a sexually-themed drama about Manila’s male dancer-prostitutes (Oct 20, 6pm, Bayanihan Center, 1010 Mission St.); and Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa (Dance of Two Left Feet) , a poetic dance and music romance (Oct 27, 2pm, War Memorial Community Center, 6655 Mission St., Daly City). www.facebook.com/ events/202886676510782/

Thrillpeddlers presents Shocktoberfest 13, an evening of horror and unhinged comedy with two world-premiere 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. Previews. Opening night Oct. 4.

Thu-Sat 8pm. Special Halloween performances Oct. 30 & 31. Thru Nov 17.

575 10th St. (800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Thee Oh Sees @ Great American Music Hall

Art official

by Jim Provenzano

A

long with the de Young hosting a Nureyev exhibit, and the Legion of Honor going doubly gay with works by Man Ray and Lee Miller (see those listings online), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts goes alt/queer/ performance groovy, and other walking-tour exhibits make for a visual feast along the way. painter. 6pm-8pm. Reg. hours Mon-Fri 10am-6pm. Sat 10am-5pm. 750 Post St. 441-1138. www.johnpence.com

Oct 13: Off the Beaten Path @ Harvey Milk Photo Center

Nayland Blake

Opening reception for a group exhibit of visually compelling photos of San Francisco’s well- and least-known parks. Opening 1pm-4pm, at 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

Oct 12: Nayland Blake @ YBCA

Oct 13: Yerba Buena Gallery Walk @ Downtown SF

The opening party-event for FREE!LOVE!TOOL!BOX, the former Bay area artist’s new exhibit of whimsical conceptual and assembled found-object, includes personal installations and artworks, each with distinctive queer themes, including a DJ booth with his own large record collection; and Nathalie Djurberg’s amazing colorful creature sculptures.

Performers include Nite Jewel and Moira Scar and Duchess Hotplate. $12-$15. 8pm.

Grand lobby and galleries, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 9792787. www.naylandblake.net www.ybca.org

Survey the array of interesting art galleries surrounding the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, with more than a dozen openings, plus prize drawings. Stop by Visual Aid for a glass of champagne (3pm-4pm), and to see the art by Martine Jardel, 57 Post St. 4th floor. (www.visualaid. org) Art Walk continues 4pm-7pm. www.111minnagallery.com

Art Gallery Week, the final weekend of the 10-day series of events and exhibits at 36 Bay Area Galleries, combines with YBCA night on Oct 13, with an additional outdoor garden area party and art space (7pm-10pm, 701 Mission St.) www.ArtGalleryWeek.com

Oct 12: Calling on the Spirits to Face the Future @ SOMArts Cultural Center Opening reception for the annual group exhibit of Day of the Dead shrines, installations and artwork. $7-$10. 6pm-9pm. Sat Oct 20 Gathering the Embers: A Dia de los Muertos Tribute Show 2012 (($10, 7pm).

Gallery hours Tue-Fri 12pm7pm. Sat 11am5pm. Sun 11am-3pm. Thru Nov 10. 934 Brannan St. 863-1414. www.somarts.org

Oct 12: Greg Gandy @ John Pence Gallery Opening reception for an exhibit of stunning realist landscapes of San Francisco and other cities, created by the local

Sat 13: Autumn Lights Festival @ Lake Merritt Festive glowing large-scale light-art Burning Man-style installation, with food trucks, beer and wine, a silent auction and DIY art projects on-site. Come illuminated! $25-$35. 6pm-10pm.

666 Bellevue Ave. Oakland. www.anotherbullwinkelshow.com

Sun 14: Passport 2012 @ North Beach Galleries Annual tour of galleries, bookstores and shops that showcases different neighborhoods each year; with special events hosting handmade works by local artists, collectible stamp books. $25-$125. 12pm4pm. After-party at 15 Romolo, 4pm-7pm. www.sfartscommission.org/gallery

Mon 15: Romaine Brooks: The Other Amazon @ Commonwealth Club Art historian Kerrin Meis discusses the unusual paintings and life of Brooks and her relationship with writer Natalie Barney, at the LGBT Forum of the the club. Free (members), $7 (students), $20. 5:30pm reception, program at 6pm. 595 Market St. www.commonwealthclub.org

Indie rock band with a lot of local fans performs on a bill with Sic Alps, Sonny and the Sunsets, and The Mallard. $15; with dinner, $40. 8:30pm. 859 O’Farrell St. www.slimspresents.com

Topdog/Underdog @ Marin Theatre Company Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play about two Black men, ironically named Lincoln and Booth, whose game of deception blurs the lines between honest and illegitimate work. $36-$57. Thru Oct. 21. Tue, Thu Fri & Sat 8pm. Wed 7:30pm.

Sun 2pm & 7pm. 397 Miller Ave, Mill Valley. 388-5208. www.marintheatre.org

Treasure Island Nightlife @ Cal. Academy of Sciences Gems and minerals are on display, with informative talks in between drinks and dreamy soundscape DJing Groundislava and electro tunes by Shigeto. Oct 18, Makers Nightlife, with a handmade arts showcase. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park.

379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Fri 12>> An Iliad @ Berkeley Rep 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 & Sun2pm.

Thru Nov 18. 2015 Addison St. at Shattuck, Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson @ SF Playhouse 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 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

Chinglish @ Berkeley Rep David Henry Hwang’s ( M. Butterfly ) hilarious play, direct from its New York run.

Set in China, it explores the cultural and linguistic confusion a businessman faces while attempting to secure a lucrative company contract. $15-$99. Tue, & ThuSat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Also Sat & Sun 2pm. Extended thru Oct. 21. Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. at Shattuck, Berkeley.

(510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Family Programming @ Shelton Theater Seven gay-themed short plays (by Steven Korbar, Rodney Taylor, rich Orloff, Joseph Frank/Aaron Tworek, James A. Martin and Chauncey Wales) from Left Coast Theatre Company, the producers of the popular Eat Our Shorts series. $15-$20. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Thru Oct.13. 533 Sutter St. www.leftcoasttheatreco.org

▼

Geezer @ The Marsh

Oct 12-14 Justin Vivian Bond @ The Rrazz Room Mx America returns from New York in a special concert. $30. 10pm.

Also Oct 13, 10pm and Oct 14, 8pm.

2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com Pacific Islanders. Mon-Sat 11am-7pm.

Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistorymuseum.org

Sing-Along The Little Mermaid @ Castro Theatre Bring the kids or act like one as you croon along the popular Disney animated feature about an impossible romance between species. $12. 7pm nightly. Sun 2:30pm.

Thru Oct. 19. 429 Castro St. 621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com

Smashing Pumpkins @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium Popular band returns, performing the album Oceania in full, plus favorites hits and obscurities. $52. 8pm. Civic Center. www.apeconcerts.com

Smuin Ballet @ Palace of Fine Arts Popular local modern ballet company performs vibrant works by Adam Hougland, Try McIntyre, and Michael Smuin; set to music ranging from Philip Glass to The Shins. $25-$65. 8pm. Thu-Sat 8pm Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Oct. 14. 3301 Lyon St. 912-1899. www.smuinballet.org

Trick or Treat @ City Art Group exhibit of paintings and works in other media, with a macabre of Halloween theme. Reg. hours 12pm-9pm, Wed-Sun. Thru Oct. 27. 828 Valencia St. 970-9900. www.cityartgallery.org

Sat 13>> Alexander String Quartet @ St. John’s Presbyterian Robert Greenberg hosts a series of concerts of works by Schubert performed by the acclaimed quartet. $40. 10am. Also Dec 1, 8, and 15. 2727 College Ave., Berkeley. 392-2545. www.sfperformances.org

Alternanative Press Expo @ Concourse Exhibit Center

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

Mingle Night @ Magnet Informative meet & greet with volunteers, staff and guests of the SF AIDS Foundations health and community space for gay and bi men, with Stop AIDS’ Bridgemen.

Free. 7pm-10pm. 4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.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

National Engagement Party @ Jonathan Browning Freedom to Marry’s local edition of a national campaign of fundraising parties to assist the groups fighting for marriage equality in several states this election year. $125 and up. 6:30-8:30pm. 30 Sheridan St. (315) 207-3984. www.freedomtomarry.org/nep/events www.jonathanbrowninginc.com

A Rich Treasure Trove @ Truck Celebration honoring the prolific work of leather/nightlife photographer Rich Stadtmiller. $3. 6pm-12am. 1900 Folsom St. www.richtrove.com www.trucksf.com

Shamanism Classes @ LGBT Center Find your power animal at the monthly LGBT-inclusive drumming circle and ritual class. $25. 10am-12pm. Second Saturdays.

1800 Market St. RSVP Liz Dale: Lizsanpablo@aol.com www.sfcenter.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. 277 Taylor St. 525-1205. www.cuttingball.com

Treasure Island Music Festival @ Treasure Island Two-day outdoor all-day concert line-up of local and touring bands; 13 a day. $75$239. On-island parking $30-$60. (shuttle buses available). Also Oct.14. www.treasureislandfestival.com/2012/

Go ape for comics and alt. media at APE! Indeie and self-published zines, books, magazine, graphic novels, author booths, informative panels, and more. Also Oct 14.

635 8th St. www.comic-con.org/ape/

Sun 14>>

FACine 19 @ Various Cinemas

Get laughs from both sides with host Rick Fletcher, James Gunn, Casey Ley, Nick Leonard, Kate Willet, Nicole Calasich, Justin Alan and Jen Dronsky. $10. 21+. 8pm.

510 Larkin St. www.decosf.com

19th annual Filipino American Cinema Festival, with three LGBT-themed features: Senorita, about a politically-focused

Bi-Curious Comedy Night @ Deco Lounge

Oct 11-14

Of Thee I Sing @ Eureka Theatre

Off the Beaten Path

Thu 11>> Arab Film Festival @ Castro Theatre Opening night of the festival screens Man Without a Cell Phone. $20-$25. Various times. Thru Oct 21. 429 Castro St. www.arabfilmfestival.org

I Capuleti e I Montecchi @ War Memorial Opera House Bellini’s operatic adaptation of Romeo and Juliet is staged by the San Francisco Opera with Munich’s Bavarian State Opera. $22$340. 7:30pm. Also Oct. 14, 16 & 19. 301 Van Ness Ave. 565-6451. www.sfopera.com

Greg Gandy

42nd Street Moon opens its 20th season with a production of the classic political satire by George and Ira Gershwin (book

by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind). $25-$75. Wed 7pm. Thu & Fri 8pm.

Sat 6pm Sun 3pm. Thru Oct. 21. 215 Jackson St. 255-8207. www.42ndstmoon.org

Josh Klipp & The Klipptones @ Mint Plaza

The Other Place @ Magic Theatre

Jazz vocalist and his band perform at the Central Market Arts Fest. Free. 6pm-7pm.

Mint Plaza. Also, Oct. 13 at Mondy’s Living Room Series, and Oct. 14 atBliss Bar. www.joshuaklipp.com

Sharr White’s acclaimed thriller about a strange Cape Cod unexplained mystery. $22-$62. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2:30pm. Extended thru Oct. 14. Fort Mason Center, Bldg. D, 3rd floor.

Marina Blvd at Buchana. 441-8822. www.magictheatre.org

Mariinsky Ballet & Orchestra @ Zellerbach Hall The Russian company performs Swan Lake, with music by Tchaikovsky, with choreography by Constantin Sergeyev, based on Petipa and Ivanov’s original. $30-$175.

Wed-Sat 8pm. Also Oct 13, 2pm; Oct 14, 3pm. Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave, UC Berkeley campus. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

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, a new exhibit organized by queer and transgender Asian

Sundance Stompede

Sundance Stompede @ Holiday Inn, Regency Ballroom, Space 550 Yeehaw! It’s the 11th annual LGBT two-stepping line-dancing festival, with four days and nights of dancing, performing, lessons and socializing.

Oct 11: Kick-Off Dance, $10, 6:30-11pm, Space 550, 550 Barneveld Ave. Oct. 12: Welcome Dance, $20, 7:30pm-1am, Holiday Inn, 1500 Van Ness Ave. Oct 13: Hoedown 2012, with performances, silent auction, raffle and open dancing, $45, 7:30pm-1am $35, at the Regency, 1300 Van Ness Ave. Oct 14: Stompede Ball, $10, 5pm-11pm at Space 550. Dance workshops daily, $20-$30, various times at the Holiday Inn. Country-Western gear appreciated but not required. www.sundancesaloon.org

▼

Out&About >>

October 11-17, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Crescendo @ Four Seasons Hotel

Mon 15>>

Jim Caruso @ The Rrazz Room

San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus’ annual fundraising gala, with a champagne brunch, silent and live auctions, a preview performance of the 35th season by members of the chorus, plus special honored guests Dan Savage (It Gets Better Project), Joe Jervis (JoeMyGod) and Broadway composer Andrew Lippa. $150 and up.

12pm-3pm. 757 Market St. 865-3650. www.sfgmc.org

The Blues Broads @ The Rrazz Room

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

Imagining Val Travel @ Glama-Rama Salon Local collage artist Tofu’s exhibit focuses on vintage and contemporary travel imagery. On view thru Nov. 3. 304 Valencia St at 14th. www.glamarama.com

SF Hiking Club @ Point Reyes Sky Trail

Tracy Nelson, Dorothy Morrison, Annie Sampson, Angela Strehli & Deanna Bogart perform $30. 8pm. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

David Byrne & St. Vincent @ Orpheum Theatre Founder of Talking Heads and vocalistmusician Annie Clark perform music from their collaborative CD Love This Giant. $63.50-$129. 8pm. 1192 Market St. at 8th.

(888) 746-1799. www.shnsf.com

Tue 16>> Delfeayo Marsalis Octet @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley

Join GLBT hikers for a 10-mile at Point Reyes.

Start off with a climb up through the woods on the Mt. Wittenberg Trail to intersect with the Sky Trail. Bring: lunch, water, hat, sunscreen, layers, sturdy boots. Carpool meets 9:00 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores.

706-5923. www.sfhiking.com

Jazz ensemble performs Such Sweet Thunder, Duke Ellington’s 1957 Shakespearean tribute. $20-$46. 8pm. UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room

The Drag Show @ Various Channels

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

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

Lit Crawl

Wed 17>> 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

Diane Schuur @ The Rrazz Room Veteran jazz singer-pianist performs. $40$47.50. 8pm Various times thru Oct 21.

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

Fierce Love [Remix] @ New Conservatory Theatre PoMo Afro Homos’ revival and restaging of their award-winning show with humor, music, stories and truths about the joy and contradictions of black gay life; with Brian Freeman, members of Deep Dickollective and B/GLAM. $25-$37. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Oct 28. 25 Van Ness Ave, lower level. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

Jet Black Pearl @ The Marsh Berkeley Satirical comic accordion-playing songstress performs her show Sex, Slugs & Accordion, Wed nights, weekly thru Nov 14 (no show Oct 31). $10. 8pm. 2120 Allston Way, near Shattuck. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Thu 18>> Comedy Bodega @ Esta Nocha The weekly LGBT and indie comic stand-up night. 8pm-9:30pm. 3079 16th St. at Mission. www.comedybodega.com

Freelance Whales @ Mezzanine Multi-instrumental talented band performs. Geographer opens. $20. 9pm.

444 Jessie St. www.apeconcerts.com

One Night, One Heart @ Fort Mason Center

Out loud A

uthors, writers, poets, scribblers, ranters; the written word comes alive this week, in bookstores, cafes, and even laundromats. – J.P.

Plantosaurus Rex @ Conservatory of Flowers Closing party for the exhibit of prehistoric plants and flowers (giant ferns, spiky horsetails) from the Mesozoic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, with life-size models of dinosaurs. At the party, enjoy beer, wine, survey plants and dinosaur mockups. Dress in “Cave couture” and get a free drink ticket! $5. 21+. 6pm-10pm. Reg hours, Tue-Sun 10am-4:30pm. Thru Oct. 21. 100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park. 8312090. www.conservatoryofflowers.org

Thu 11 - Scott Terry @ Books Inc, Castro Author of Cowboys, Armageddon and the Truth (reviewed in this issue) discusses and signs copies of his novel about a gay teen persecuted by Jehovah’s Witnesses.

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

Oct 13: Lit Crawl @ Valencia Street Venues Litquake continues its daily festival of authorial events through Oct 13, with the annual three-hour, three-part, multiplevenue wild reading series, with hundreds of authors reading in dozens of bars, nightclubs, cafes, includes LGBT-themed events (6pm, 7:15pm & 8:15pm): Drink to Me at Martuni’s, with Mark Abramson, Christine Beatty, Dr. Jack Fritscher, Lewis DeSimone and Jim Provenzano (6pm). At 7:15pm, Guy Writers’ Homo Poetic with Kevin Killian, Andrew Demcak, Brent Calderwood, Baruch Porras-Hernandez, and James J. Siegel invades FSC Barbers; plus Sister Spit at the Lexington Club, and Bent Boys at Dog-Eared Books. www.litquake.org

20th anniversary gala party and fundraiser for Zen Hospice Project, with appetizers, beer and wine; reception. $25-$100.

5:30pm-7pm, dance party 7pm-10pm.

Golden Gate Room, Marina Blvd at Buchanan. 913-7682. www.zenhospice.org

Trebor Healey at Le Conte. www.psr.edu Also Oct. 19, 7pm, at Alley Cat Books, 3036 24th St. at Folsom. www.treborhealey.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

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

Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication.

Sat 13: Reviving Spirits @ Progressive Ground Café OutLook Theatre Project’s queer interactive spokenword/performance series focuses on spirituality, sexuality and gender. Free. 5pm-8pm. 2301 Bryant St. at 21st. www.outlooktheater.weebly.com

Wed 17: Trebor Healey @ Chapel of the Great Commission, Berkeley Gay author ( Through It Came Bright Colors) and former SF resident reads from and discusses his new novel A Horse Named Sorrow, about a man’s promise to a teen who dies of AIDS. Free. 7pm. Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave

Belo Cipriani

Wed 17: Smack Dab @ Magnet In observance of National Disability Month (October), cohosts Kirk Read and Larry-bob Roberts welcome acclaimed memoir author Belo Cipriani ( Blind ) and fiction author Jim Provenzano ( Every Time I Think of You ), who offer divergent takes on disability in gay life. Free. Open mic sign-up 7:30pm. Readings 8pm. 4122 18th St. at Castro. www.magnetsf.org

For more bar and nightlife events, go to www.bartabsf.com

www.ebar.com

<< Society

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2012

▼

Castro sensations

by Donna Sachet

S

ome have said that Donna Sachet will show up at the opening of an envelope. We prefer to see our busy schedule as concerned community outreach. And so we joined Supervisor Scott Wiener and MUMC President Terry Asten Bennett last Wednesday to cut the ribbon at the opening of Sliderbar, a brand new restaurant at the corner of Castro and Noe offering a dizzying array of sliders, wines and draft beers, milkshakes, and more, even staying open until 1:30 a.m. on Fri. & Sat. Across the street we joined the Beach Party at Café Flore, celebrating San Francisco summer and this business’ selection four years running by three local publications as the Best Café in the city. Café Flore is so many things to so many people, offering a quiet place to find solace over coffee, a great location to meet friends for lunch or dinner, and a central spot for fundraisers, parties, and other events. This day, the entire neighborhood was hopping with the Castro Farmers’ Market in full swing and incredible music wafting from Café Flore, performed by local talents Xavier Toscano, Bebe Sweetbriar, Gypsy Love, and Kippy Marks.

The beautifully appointed Lodge of the Regency Center was the setting for last Thursday’s 30-year celebration of the Community Thrift Store, a place to donate unwanted items, to purchase secondhand pieces, and to fund charitable organizations.

From humble beginnings in a private garage, the Community Thrift Store now owns its building on Valencia St., and distributes $100,000 in quarterly checks to over 200 local nonprofits. Donors can designate the charity to receive funding. This was a relaxed evening of cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and live performances on the vintage pipe organ. The program introduced the Board of Directors, presented certificates of commendation from State Senator Mark Leno and Supervisor Scott Wiener, and gave special recognition to longtime President of the Board Steven

Steven Underhill

Seen at the Castro Street Fair last Sunday: community outreach.

Rascher. Among those attending were Emperors John Carrillo, Jason Ladd, T.J. Istvan, and Bradley Roberts, Empresses Remy Martin, Marlena, Renita Valdez, Alexis Miranda, Galilea, and Sissy St. Clair, Mary Sager, and Roberta Bobba.

Saturday night, the LGBT community was dressed to the nines at the elegant Fairmont Hotel for Horizons Foundation’s Gala Dinner and Casino Party. The guest list read like a who’s who, including City Treasurer Jose Cisneros & Mark Kelleher, Bevan Dufty, Jewelle Gomez & Diana Sabin, Chris Carnes, Gretchen Fleischmann, Chris Edwards, Roberta Achtenberg, Masen Davis, C. Nathan Harris, Brandon Miller, Al Baum, and Christopher Vasquez.

The room erupted with applause when Kate Kendall, Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, accepted a special award with a speech of refreshing candor and humility. The room was not so happy when it was announced that fellow awardee Congressman Barney

Frank was not present. His videotaped acceptance speech was received with cool reservation. After the dinner and program, guests adjourned to the casino room, the dance floor, or the nearby Tonga Room, where an excellent cover band played late into the night.

Sunday was one of the most tightly scheduled days in recent memory, starting with a show at Harry Denton’s Starlight Room, then the Castro Street Fair, Brian Kent’s benefit concert at the Rrazz Room for AIDS Emergency Fund, and Remember the Party at City Lights. We couldn’t ask for better weather for the fair, resulting in a record turn-out and smiles all around. Brian and his band displayed extraordinary talent and sensitivity, and our friends at Remember the Party took us on a delightful journey back to a simpler time when disco was the rage, lyrics filled our heads, and everybody danced! Some of the same tireless faces were evident at several of the events, notably Suzan Revah, Joanna Parks, Gib Bolton, Steven Satyricon, Gary Virginia, Julian Marshburn, and Race Bannon. These are the kind See page 27 >>

Coming up in leather and kink Thu., Oct. 11: Daddy Thursdays at Kok Bar. Shot & drink specials. 10 p.m.-close. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Exchange (220 Jones St.), a male-only event, 18 or older. $20. 1 p.m. Go to: www.voy.com/201188/.

Thu., Oct. 11: Underwear Night at The Powerhouse (1347 Folsom). Strip down for drink specials. 10 p.m.– close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Sun., Oct. 14: Castro Bear presents Sunday Furry Sunday at 440 Castro. 4–10 p.m. Go to: www.the440.com.

Fri., Oct. 12: Master’s Den: Auction presented by Maestro Stefanos at the SF Citadel (181 Eddy). Auction for submissives and dominants who attend the Maestro’s events. 7:15 p.m.–1 a.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Sun., Oct. 14: Baby Daddy at Kok Bar. 9 p.m.–close.

Drink & shot specials, no cover! Go to: www.kokbarsf. com.

Sun., Oct. 14: PoHo Sundays at The Powerhouse. Dollar drafts! Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Fri., Oct. 12: Fridays Underwear at Kok Bar. Strip down for drink specials! 11 p.m.–1:30 a.m. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sun., Oct. 14: Whip Works, Singletail Peer Group facilitated by Jerry at the SF Citadel. 8 p.m. Go to: www. sfcitadel.org.

Fri., Oct. 12: GearUp Play Party at M. S Leather (385-A 8th St.). $20 at door, $15 with student or military ID. 9 p.m.–2 a.m. Look it up on Facebook.

Sun., Oct. 14: RichTrove Recap, Afternoon with Rich Stadmiller at BeatBox (314 11th St.), slide show and Q&A. 2 p.m. Look it up on Facebook.

Fri., Oct. 12: Lick It at The Powerhouse. 9 p.m.–close.

Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Mon., Oct. 15: Trivia Night with host Casey Ley at Truck. 8 p.m. Go to: www.trucksf.com

Fri., Oct. 12: Truck Wash at Truck (1900 Folsom). 10 p.m.–close. Live shower boys, drink specials! Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Tue., Oct. 16: Busted at Truck. $5 beer bust. 9–11 p.m.

Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Sat.-Sun., Oct. 13-14: Pansexual Event at the SF Citadel. 8 p.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Tue., Oct. 16: Safeword: 12-Step Kink Recovery Group at the SF Citadel. 6:30 p.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org/ calendar/.

Sat., Oct. 13: Shirts Off Saturdays at Kok Bar. Take it off for specials and fun! 10 p.m.–close. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Tue., Oct. 16: Ink & Metal at The Powerhouse. 9 p.m.– close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Sat., Oct. 13: Stallion Saturdays at Rebel Bar (1760 Market). Revolving DJs, afterhours fun! 9 p.m.–4 a.m. Go to: www.stallionsaturdays.com.

Sat., Oct. 13: Boot Lickin’ at The Powerhouse. 10 p.m.– close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Sat., Oct. 13: All Beef Saturday Nights at The Lone Star (1354 Harrison). 9 p.m.-close. Go to: www.facebook. com/lonestarsf.

Sun., Oct. 14: SF Men’s Spanking Party at The Power

Wed., Oct. 17: Pit Stop at Kok Bar. Happy Hour prices, 5 p.m.–close. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Wed., Oct. 17: Underwear 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.

Wed., Oct. 17: Nipple Play at The Powerhouse. 10 p.m.– close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Wed., Oct. 17: Bare Bear: Night at the Baths at The Water Garden (1010 The Alameda, San Jose). 6–10 p.m. Go to: www.thewatergarden.com.

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Karrnal >>

October 11-17, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Illustrating the Butch

by John F. Karr

M

y basic intent in reviewing porn has been to stand for sexual liberties. So now I’d like to curse a small group of petulant, adolescent men for managing to have those liberties proscribed. That nudism in itself is not sexual isn’t the point. The simple fact is that the selfcentered actions of the Naked Men, as the Castro nudists are known, are going to be the cause of this city implementing a law that restricts the liberty of us all. It may be one that most of us would never indulge in. But there shouldn’t be a law against it. I’d like a list of the Naked Men’s names, so I could publicly excoriate them. Perhaps a bronze Hall of Shame plaque could be mounted in Harvey Milk Plaza.

But wait – there’s more Castro Sadness. First, Ingenious has closed. It was nirvana as a purveyor of gay underwear. How can underwear be gay?

With architectural construction that flatters and immensifies baskets, that’s how. C’mon guys, fess up. You’ve got a couple pairs of crotch uplifters, don’tcha? The stuff’s expensive, but a luxury of constant thrill. I can’t walk by the store’s now vacant space without a mournful wince in my wonder parts. Even more doleful was the news that came on the first of the month, when SuperStar Video announced their imminent closing – after nearly 30 years. Not moving, not selling to a new owner. Closing, as in gone forever. Gone, a vast collection of porn that ranged from the most popular to the most esoteric. I’m bereft. Management doesn’t know the exact date of disappearance. It could be quite suddenly, in days or a couple weeks. But it won’t be later than the end of the year.

Members with unused credits can use them to purchase both new and used DVDs, at $2.17 per credit. A shoutout to Victor. I miss you already.

Along with preparing the sackcloth and ashes that’ll mark my SuperStar mourning, what I’ve been doing the past couple days is pondering the homosexualities of the movie Camelot.

You’re right – it’s not porn. But it was recently re-issued on Blu-ray, so I watched it and found it does have its arousing homo-moments. One wonders whether director Joshua Logan was aware of the bonerifics he implanted in his movie. Tales about his career find him showcasing the boys in many of his Broadway shows.

There’s the song in South Pacific in which a bunch of horny Seabees overact their Butch as they stomp around bare-chested and proclaim how horny they are; in the musical All American, set in a football milieu, a bunch of jocks strip down in the locker room as

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A screen grab from Camelot: King Arthur and his holy shadow.

A screen grab from Camelot: The Boy in Gold Tights.

they sing “Physical Fitness,” grunting and growling as they flex their big muscles while cataloguing what comprises their Butch. And the onstage swimming pool in the musical Wish You Were Here let brawny young chorus cuties cavort in wet swimsuits. Camelot itself has the song, “Fie on Goodness,” in which a bunch of knights act lusty while illustrating their Butch.

The movie of Camelot has at least three moments of gay goodies.

What does one make of the soul kiss Lancelot implants on a dead knight, which brings the fellow back to life?

Although the intimate lip-rubbings picked up my heartbeat, they weren’t strictly necessary. And then there’s The Boy in Gold Tights. He stands next to Guinevere as she’s convers-

ing with the king. I think I missed the dialogue, though, distracted as I was by TBiGT’s big bulge. Its surprise is heightened by being the first and I think only prominent package to be seen in the movie. Does this big basket budge from the frame as the dialogue continues at length?

Not at all; it’s dwelt upon.

And, most prominent of all, what to make of the phallic tattoo stamped on the King’s face throughout most of the monologue that ends the first act? He grasps a chair, and the ornament carved atop it casts its shadow on his cheek. It’s a penis, plain and simple. It seems to emerge from his mouth, then sidles over to lodge, long and at length, from jaw to eye. A cheekboner, as it were. The overlong Camelot would be quite a drag without its three gay glimpses. They change it momentarily to Camel-hot.▼

On the Town

From page 26

of people who keep the party going in San Francisco.

Next on the horizon, we recommend Masquerade Soiree this Sat. at the Westin St. Francis benefiting San Francisco Beautiful, an organization dedicated to creating, enhancing, and preserving beauty in our gorgeous city. It’s October: add a festive mask to your black-tie look! Wed., Oct. 17, AIDS Legal Referral Panel hosts a reception and auction at the Green Room of War Memorial Building; Fri., Oct. 19, Breast Cancer Emergency Fund hosts This Old Bag: The Power of the Purse; and Sat., Oct. 20, SF Night Ministry hosts Star Struck: A Red Carpet Gala at 1101 O’Farrell St. We’ll be emceeing that last event, and we promise you a lively evening of dinner, silent and live auction, raffle, and great people!▼

Steven Underhill

Actress Helen Hunt appeared at the Q&A for her new film The Sessions at the Mill Valley Film Festival.

Read more on www.ebar.com

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28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2012

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Political season on the tube

by Victoria A. Brownworth

W

ith the election mere weeks away, the tube is now officially election-crazy. Even tabloid TV is spinning the election, although they seem perennially focused on what Michelle Obama and Ann Romney are wearing. Both were beautifully attired on debate night, but then the First Lady is the best-dressed White House wife since Jackie Kennedy and rarely has a fashion misstep, even when she’s doing jumping

jacks with school kids.

We didn’t think anything could deflect attention from Honey Boo Boo, the Kardashians and American Idol, but apparently the TV landscape has embraced the impending November climax. The debates seem to be the propellant. All the debates are broadcast live on C-SPAN, ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Univision, as well as other random cable networks and local HDTV networks. The first presidential debate grabbed just un-

der 70 million viewers in the ratings, putting it ahead of Sunday Night Football, The X Factor and American Idol. Who says the electorate is disinterested?

Martha Raddatz, Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent with ABC since 2008, moderated the Vice Presidential debate on Oct. 10. Raddatz has been covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other conflicts abroad. We found Jim Lehrer’s moderating during the first Presidential debate less than stellar.

The night after the debate, David Letterman quipped, “How about that Jim Lehrer? He reminded me of one of those replacement referees.

Don’t worry, they’re bringing back Billy Crystal next year.”

The two remaining Presidential debates will be on Oct. 16 & 22.

Candy Crowley, CNN’s Chief Political Correspondent, will moderate the town hall-style debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY, and Bob Schieffer, host of CBS’ Face the Nation, will host the final debate at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Apparently, colleges on the blue state West Coast weren’t viable candidates.

Letterman has had running bits for the past few months about the election and various candidates. He has had a running joke about Mitt Romney, who has thus far not been on Letterman’s show, although President and Michelle Obama have both guested there. Both the First Lady and Ann Romney have also appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The night after the debate, Letterman quipped about Romney, “He was energetic, he was crisp, he was dynamic. What have you done with the real Mitt Romney?!”

Letterman has been having various actors stand in for Romney over the weeks he’s been asking the Romney camp for the candidate to guest.

The night after the debate, Broadway star Matthew Broderick played Romney. Letterman also has a periodic segment he does called “Mitt Romney Zingers,” in which he plays clips from Romney on the stump.

Not for Log Cabin boys, but the rest of us can enjoy the giggle.

At the end Letterman noted, “We have been trying for months to get Romney on the show. Now, he did so well last night I’m afraid he might actually show up. He did so well last night he might even let poor people vote. From the Cayman Islands, even Mitt’s money was watching.”

Of course for the best politicsas-zeitgeist, SNL remains the go-to place. We are still howling over the Ann Romney bits from last week.

If you don’t watch SNL, do DVR it.

Four years later, everyone still thinks Tina Fey’s repeated takedown of Sarah Palin swayed voters.

Speaking of comedy, what is with NBC this season? They have one funny sitcom in their new lineup, and that’s the stellar Go On, which has pretty much everything you could want in a sitcom. There’s racial and ethnic balance, queer characters, great writing and a terrific ensemble cast led by Matthew Perry, with a really superb wingman performance by John Cho. It doesn’t make The New Normal any less unbearable (what’s with the woman-hating on that show?), but it is a great half-hour. The other new sitcoms on NBC? In a word: sucky.

Animal Practice has tried to turn stereotypes into an art-form, but since they aren’t, it’s a dud. The cute commercials with the little monkey dressed as a doctor? That’s as funny as it gets. And Guys with Kids? Possibly the worst new show on the tube.

Mitt Romney at the first presidential debate: Who let the dogs out?

Jimmy Fallon developed this show, but since Fallon is funny and this show doesn’t have one laughline in it, we really don’t see his imprint. The show stars the usually brilliant Anthony Anderson, who was spectacular as drug-dealing psychopath Antwon Mitchell on The Shield. Anderson also did a turn on Law & Order before it closed up shop. But on Guys with Kids? Let’s just say he was funnier on L&O. This show is supposed to show how hip and cool straight dads can be.

Uh, no.

Grey area We sobbed through almost the entire hour of Grey’s Anatomy’s fantastic return from summer hiatus.

The good news is that Callie (Sara Ramirez) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) are still together, and Arizona didn’t die in the plane crash and subsequent week in the wild that killed off the beloved Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh) at the scene, and then in the season opener, the equally beloved, hunky and hot Mark Sloan (Eric Dane), who was taken off life support at Seattle Grace.

But PTSD has struck all those who survived. Derek’s (Patrick Dempsey) hand, mangled in the crash, fails on his first surgery.

Christina is in a state of angry catatonia for several weeks (Sandra Oh deserves an Emmy for this performance). But Arizona and Callie, while still alive, may not survive what Callie has had to do, amputate Arizona’s leg. That decision may alter their lives forever.

This show has always been compelling and emotionally fraught.

The queer storylines are superb.

The family Callie, Arizona and their little girl have is real, honest and believable. So if this is a show you never watched, think again. Shonda Rhimes, the one African-American female showrunner on the tube, has created a great show that keeps chugging along, now in its ninth season, and continues to dazzle us with strong storylines and an even stronger cast.

Speaking of strong casts, Homeland has returned for a second season. This show mesmerizes us with its taut storylines and superb casting. The Emmy-winner blew us away last season, and the previews of the coming season, all we can say is, wow! Claire Danes is phenomenal.

The tube isn’t just full of election politics this season, many of the new, and in the case of Homeland and Scandal, returning shows are strongly political. There is an edge toward conspiracy, but as we know from real-life global politics, that’s how it is out there. Look at what’s happened in the Middle East in just the past few weeks. But unlike the torture-supporting neo-con drama

that 24 was during the Bush years, these new shows create a much deeper, more realistic and fully realized expression of the way we live now.

Among the best of these shows is Last Resort. If you aren’t watching this show, which is a thriller-y, espionage-y version of The West Wing, set your DVR for it. It’s explosive in the literal sense, and really delineates how blurred the lines of government have become in the 21st century. The role of NATO, especially in the outer reaches of civilization as we know it, also gets detailed and deconstructed. Not necessarily for the better.

What makes this show so compelling is how the invisible red, white and blue line between nationalism and breaking people is so easily crossed. Even if the performances weren’t good and women didn’t finally have a role in both government and military that goes beyond wife, this show is definitely a cautionary tale. It’s not just warmedover Bourne. It’s the real deal. The Washington Post calls it the best new drama of the season, and they know Washington politics better than most.

Speaking of the real deal, the season opener of Revenge got very real and nasty, but then, that comes with the territory of the title. This show also has a powerful political edge to it, since Emily/Amanda’s father was accused of terrorism and Victoria’s plane has just come down. Partly conspiracy, partly too much money buying political favors, it makes for great TV. Revenge also peels away the layers on corporate dirty-dealing and puts the 1% in bold, discomfiting relief. Discomfiting for them, not us, for once.

In most prime-time soaps and dramas, the 1% are the aspirational go-to characters, like they often are on daytime. Victor Newman and Jack Abbott on Young & Restless are portrayed as models of corporate strength, for example, but they are really unpleasant characters we would hate in real life and want to Occupy.

But on Revenge, with its underlying proletariat bent, the 1%ers epitomized by the Graysons are people we love to hate. We root for Amanda/Emily even as we cringe at her often cruel and violent tactics.

Because we hate these corporate leeches much more, and are loving the takedown. This Revenge dish is warm and tasty. Plus, Revenge has the side benefit of having a strong gay male character, Nolan, who hasn’t been neutered. Go Nolan!

The season opener of The Good Wife reminded us of why this show has won Emmy after Emmy. If last season wasn’t political or fast-paced enough for you, this season will give you whiplash. Our favorite is-she-alesbian-or-is-she-bisexual character, Kalinda, is back with a violent venSee page 30 >>

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

October 11-17, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Music >>

Fall for soundtracks

by Gregg Shapiro

T

he deluxe 25th anniversary edition of the 12-song Dirty Dancing (RCA/Legacy), “dedicated to the memory of Patrick Swayze,” is another musical reminder of how fast time flies by. This little movie, set at a resort in the Catskills in the 1960s, directed by a gay man (the late Emile Ardolino), starring a post-Outsiders/pre-Ghost Swayze and a post-Ferris Bueller/pre-nose job Jennifer Grey, became a huge sensation. Spawning a few imitators and even a Broadway musical adaptation, Dirty Dancing was as uplifting as Swayze and Grey’s trademark dance-floor move. And how could they have made the moves (dirty and otherwise) that they did without the proper music? The soundtrack contained a number of classics from the period in which it was set (“Stay” by Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs, “Love Is Strange”

by Mickey & Silvia), but it was the originals that made the greatest impact. The Oscar-winning theme song “(I’ve Had) the Time of My

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That’s precisely what it gets with Original Soundtrack: Moonrise Kingdom (ABKCO). A cross-section of Benjamin Britten compositions, Alexandre Desplat’s original score, Hank Williams selections and more, the soundtrack is luminous on its own. The Master: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Nonesuch) reunites filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson and composer/musician Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead.

Having previously made movie music magic on the Oscar-winning There Will Be Blood, the pair achieves a similar effect in The Master. As dark and diabolical as the subject matter, the score is exquisite. Greenwood once again proves he is a first-rate composer.

Period numbers “Get Thee Behind Me Satan” by Ella Fitzgerald and “No Other Love” by Jo Stafford set the tone.

Concert movies such as LCD Soundsystem’s Shut Up and Play

the Hits were big in 2012. The DVD/ CD double-disc live package The Chemical Brothers: Don’t Think (Astralwerks), recorded/filmed at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival, captures the electronic music pioneers’ energy live, and includes crowd-pleasers such as “Hey Boy Hey Girl.”

Boasting previously unheard songs from the third season’s finale, Glee: The Music, The Graduation Album (Columbia) features the “kids” doing what they do best,

reinterpreting popular hits for a Fox audience. Songs b legends (Queen, Bob by D Dylan, Bruce Springsteen) a legends in the making and ( (Lady Gaga) get the Glee t treatment, which has less tto do with a cappella and cchoral singing and more tto do with (over)producttion. It’s probably best that tthey graduated before they m morphed into the Ray Conn niff Singers.

With the arrival of NBC’s SSmash, Fox’s Glee is no lo longer the ruler of the musical TV-series roost. The Music of Smash (Columbia) features the Emmy-nominated song “Let Me Be Your Star” (written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman of Hairspray fame) performed by Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty. The soundtrack also includes performances by Nick Jonas, Will Chase and Leslie Odom. There are also covers of songs by out songwriter Linda Perry, Carrie Underwood, and Florence Welch.▼

Danny Lyon

From page 17

Rambling and opinionated when talking to a gathering of reporters recently, Lyon, now 70, looked and sounded like an emissary from the 1960s. Dressed in blue work-shirt, wire-rim glasses and beat-up running shoes, his curly white hair pulled into a neat ponytail, he espoused the importance of our essential humanity and the urgency for social change, values emblematic of that era. And he has lived his creed. Born in Queens to a German-Jewish emigrant father who dabbled in photography and kept a darkroom in the family apartment, he says he got lucky when he “stumbled onto the story of the decade,” the Civil Rights Movement. In the early 1960s he hitchhiked to the South, a segregated tinderbox on the verge of conflagration, where he became the semi-official photographer for SNCC. He caught Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in an unguarded moment just before he spoke at a funeral for the little girls killed at the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, and captured an incendiary moment in 1964, when a mob assaulted demonstrators blocking traffic outside Leb’s Restaurant in Atlanta. Leb, the Jewish proprietor, hired the Ku Klux Klan to protect

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Life,” performed by Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley, can still be heard in regular rotation on radio. Swayze himself had a hit with “She’s Like the Wind,” as did Eric Carmen with “Hungry Eyes.” The nicely packaged reissue includes an informative booklet, sticker and set of colorful postcards.

Music from the Motion Picture Titanic (Masterworks/Sony Classical), a multi-million-selling movie soundtrack, sits a few spaces on the bestseller list below Dirty Dancing.

The expanded 15th anniversary edition features the original James Horner-composed soundtrack, including the much derided “My Heart Will Go On” (sung by an overwrought Celine Dion), as well as Horner’s legendary score. A second disc consists of string quintet I Salonisti’s performance of music from the period that was included in the movie. Of questionable taste is the set of “vintage” Titanic luggagetag stickers. Bon voyage, indeed!

A quirky movie such as Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom deserves a soundtrack as brilliant.

Mill Valley Film Fest

From page 17

breakthrough four decades ago, Last Tango in Paris – is up-ended when a beautiful, doggedly sincere suitor, the local veterinarian (Ishai Golan, with understated masculinity that will convince many gay men to buy tickets for both shows), convinces Tamar to play house with him. The dude is great with the girls, terrific in bed, everything seems perfect, yet Tamar soon wants her old life back, with drastic consequences for all.

Asher invokes every last metaphor that farm animals are capable of delivering for human erotic freedom. Her approach to this first feature also signals a yet-unnamed “New Wave” of Israeli filmmakers eager to show sides of their frontier society that do not involve the ongoing conflict with their Arab neighbors.

In 1972, Pauline Kael hailed Bertolucci for achieving “realism with the terror of actual experience still alive on the screen,” but her hope that Tango would pave the way for a permanent revolution in the way

Danny Lyon/Magnum Photos, courtesy the Edwynn Houk Gallery

Danny Lyon/Magnum, courtesy the Edwynn Houk Gallery

“Crossing the Ohio River, Louisville” (1966), gelatin silver print by Danny Lyon: freedom may be his real subject.

“Raymond Jackson (Robbery), Walls Unit Yard, Texas Department of Corrections” (1968), gelatin silver print by Danny Lyon.

his business. The irony was not lost on Lyon, who grabbed the shot and called the owner a Nazi.

Slow to embrace the digital revolution, Lyon laments the vanished, sensory experience of silver paper and tools of the trade that have all but disappeared. Cell phones are not cameras, he writes. “A camera is a Nikon or a Leica or Rolleiflex. and when you strike someone with one, they know they have been hit with something substantial.”

Unlike his less interesting montages, collages of photos he shot of family

“If the top of society is so screwed up,” he recalls thinking to himself, “why not look at the bottom?” So, in 1967, he began a record – an indictment would be the more accurate description – of life inside the Texas penal system, and his photographs from that project are some of his most powerful. In one, an African American man who has collapsed from heat exhaustion is sprawled in the back of a pickup truck like so much refuse; another man stands naked in front of a white guard during a “shakedown.”

During this period, he formed lasting

Western filmmakers utilize sexuality to reveal character and the inner self has not come to pass. The Slut, which has apparently secured at least limited US distribution, should not be missed. (Rafael 1, 10/11; Rafael 2, 10/12) Shanghai Calling Close to a century ago, my British-born dad, barely out of his teens, used to make China’s largest city a port of call as a ship’s purser for the Blue Funnel line. At this time of Chinese humiliation, the city was carved into spheres of influence by the U.S., Britain, France and Japan. Director Daniel Hsia puts this history on speed dial in a super-savvy satire/ romantic comedy.

Stanford-educated, Americanborn corporate lawyer Sam (in the deliciously ironic casting of Korean American Daniel Henney) is sent to Shanghai by the New York home office to be their resident legal beagle.

Sam is a hunk approaching his 30th birthday, witty but distracted, arrogant, and master of neither Mandarin nor Cantonese – the only Chinese word he does know means fart.

He trips through a series of cultural

and friends, Lyon’s serious work forces you into places and toward individuals you might otherwise avoid. He wants to communicate that all lives have value, no matter how they’ve turned out, a philosophy that’s a corrective to the worship of celebrity and material wealth. Throughout his life, he has been drawn to society’s rejects, people on the margins who have been relegated to the trash heap and remain mostly invisible to mainstream media.

(His stated goal, at one point, was to “destroy Life magazine” and other glossies run by “archaic minds.”)

relationships with some prisoners, none stronger than with Death Row inmate Billy McCune, a rapist serving his sentence in a nine-by-five-foot cell. The two men corresponded and forged an artistic collaboration. McCune, whom Lyon calls a genius, was eventually released, and died in 2007.

“The most profound experience of my life was seeing him free,” says Lyon, and freedom, in the end, may be the real subject of his work.▼ Through Jan. 27 at the de Young Museum.

pratfalls, alienating potential friends and allies before he wises up.

Director/writer Hsia employs the upside-down birthday-cake logic of East-meets-West in a manner reminiscent of the masters: Ernst Lubitsch’s Ninotchka, Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three, Wolfgang Becker’s Goodbye Lenin and Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet. Against the backdrop of an exploding metropolis with enough shiny architectural marvels for several Gothams, Hsia enables his flying-by-the-seat-ofhis pants charmer Henney to bluff and bully his way past an attractive supporting cast, including Titanic’s Bill Paxton as Mayor of America Town, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’s Alan Ruck as an especially slippery American tech magnate. While it would be over-the-top to claim “the Lubitsch touch” for Hsia, this very smart and oddly touching tale is exceptionally entertaining and a useful hedge against election-year China-bashing. (Sequoia 1, 10/13; Rafael 1, 10/14)▼ MVFF

Daniel Henney as Sam in Shanghai Calling.

Info: www.MVFF.com

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 11-17, 2012

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Lavender Tube

From page 28

geance. When we watch Kalinda get a guy twice her size in a choke-hold, we really do get a little frisson. Especially in an election season when there are so many people we’d like to have her loose her martial-arts training on. We would like to know, however, what has happened to Alicia’s gay brother and his boyfriend. Neither has been seen since early last season. Time for a lavender alert?

Speaking of martial arts and queers, it’s so good to see Santana and Britney back together and dealing with their issues on Glee. We want to walk away from Glee, but how can we when these characters just keep reeling us back? GLAAD’s annual “look Ma, they got queers on this network” report cites Glee as the all-around LGBTQQI (did we leave out a letter?) show for the ages. We’ve got Kurt, Blaine, Britney, Santana, Unique and Sebastian, all swishing and swanning their way through every hour. And we do heart them, we really do.

What GLAAD doesn’t mention is that Glee is also one of the most racially diverse shows on the tube. Its ensemble cast has a range of white, black, Asian and Latino characters.

Plus, the characters of color are neither add-ons nor the only one of their kind standing around like obvious tokens. So while Glee is struggling with some growing pains, it’s also the most diverse and queerfriendly show on the tube. And has out LGBT actors in the cast. So just get the storylines together, people, please. And better songs for the mash-ups. Although if you missed the Britney episode, “Britney 2.0,” be sure to catch it on Fox recap. Britney Spears herself has never been so good.

Speaking of the divas, quite the dust-up over at “American Idol,” eh?

Mariah Carey has always been a nice diva, and being married to the sweet Nick Cannon and having her twins has just made her sweeter. But she and Nicki Minaj – we had to laugh when one African-American commentator on NPR said recently, “She gets to judge other people’s singing?

Really?” You thought it, she said it – went at it the other night, and the colored wigs were flying like an episode of Jerry Springer. Poor Keith Urban. Between Nicole Kidman’s new memoir and being between these two, he might be thinking rehab would be less stressful.

Star Jones claimed last week that Anderson Cooper only came out to boost his flagging ratings for his morning show on CBS. Andy Cohen asked Cooper about this in an interview on Oct. 4 and Cooper blew up, saying that if he had planned that he would have been promoing it for weeks. And he noted, “Wasn’t Star Jones hocking her wedding every day for months on The View?” Cooper added that when his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, heard about the dust-up, she asked,

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Out There

From page 18

the three-day Forever Natalie Wood program at the Castro Theatre, on Nov. 10, so it seems the stars are aligning. Lana, you might remember, was the star of Diamonds Are Forever, playing Bond girl “Plenty O’Toole.” But isn’t it Bond who has “plenty o’toole?” We’ll never understand high espionage. Value-added tack: “The Hostess” Huestis tells us that the Sean Connery part of Lana’s book is extra-juicy!

Looking ahead to the spooky horror season (and we don’t mean the election), Premiere Props announced that they will be auctioning over 1,000 costumes and horror-themed props at their HQ in El Segundo, CA, on Oct. 13 & 14. We thought you’d enjoy a partial list of the offerings, which in-

“Who is Star Jones?” Exactly, Mom, exactly.

Speaking of real LGBT people, we were sad to note that Antoine Ashley, better known to fans of Logo’s hit show RuPaul’s Drag Race as Sahara Davenport, died suddenly last week. The cause of his death was heart failure. Some of us will never get used to the loss of young gay men. The reminder of our recent past is still so raw and painful.

On a lighter note, we sure loved watching House alum and spokesmodel Olivia Wilde kissing Ashley Greene on Extra Oct. 4. Greene was guesting on the show with cutie-pie host Mario Lopez, and the show ran a clip of the full-on kiss between the two in the upcoming film Butter.

Lopez asked Greene if the kiss was good. Greene looked starry-eyed at the camera and did a little swoon as she said yes, oh yes. For a straight woman, Wilde sure seems to like to kiss girls on screen.

Speaking of sexy, Andy Cohen had Liam Neeson on the other day talking about the actor’s new film Taken 2. Out of what seemed like nowhere, Cohen asked Neeson if it was true that he has the biggest dick in Hollywood. Neeson looked uncomfortable, then joked that it was between him and Willem Dafoe.

File that for future reference, boys.

Speaking of shockers, we can’t help loving Honey Boo Boo. The adorable tot recently came out in favor of gay people and gay marriage (check it out on YouTube, then tweet it to every Republican running for office so they can see that even their constituents with the reddest necks love us). Honey Boo Boo has become such a hot item, she has now been parodied by South Park.

Wait, isn’t Honey Boo Boo already a parody? That show will air this week and next on Comedy Central. No one is safe from South Park skewering, are they? First Jesus, then Scientology, now Honey Boo Boo? Finally, we have to applaud Jennifer Livingston of WKBT-TV in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Livingston got a scathing letter from viewer Kenneth Krause, who basically said she was a fat cow and terrible role model for younger viewers. Livingston is fat.

And she’s also very pretty and really cool. She responded to Krause on air, asking him if he thought she didn’t know she was fat and that only his cruelty would make her see it. Then she said she thought she was being a pretty good role model to her young daughter by teaching her how to stand up to bullies, like Krause. Brava to Livingston for her cool and measured response that provided a teachable moment for everyone. Everyone except Krause, though, who, while cowardly refusing to come on her show, said that he hopes she uses this opportunity to change her life and lose weight.

We hope he learns to stop picking on people, regardless of size.

Ain’t TV grand? And there’s always more. With that in mind, you really must stay tuned.▼

clude Michael Myers’ full-size figure with screen-worn Halloween H2O mask, coveralls, and knife; Douglas Quaid’s (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s) screaming head from Total Recall – oops, vomit break; Jason’s screenused machete from Friday the 13th Part VII – The New Blood; the alien head prototype from Close Encounters of the Third Kind; screen-used (young) Spock ears from Star Trek 3 – Search for Spock; the original Piranha from Piranha; a selection of Critter puppets from Critters Part 2; Octopus’ (Samuel L. Jackson’s) muscle costume from The Spirit; Brooke Adams’ bust from Invasion of the Body Snatchers; an alien head from Stargate; a Freddy Krueger face mask from Nightmare on Elm Street; and last but not least, a rubber Gremlin head from Gremlins. Quite the cast of ghoulies.▼

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