Film - Send in the gowns!
by Adam Sandel
Audrey Hepburn's black Givenchy gown in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Marilyn Monroe's billowing white dress in The Seven Year Itch. James Dean's jeans. Some Hollywood looks are so iconic that they set fashion trends for years to come. And that's just what the Academy of Friends will honor at their annual Oscar gala, Behind the Seams: A Salute to Fashion in Film, on Sun., March 7 at Fort Mason in San Francisco. (read more)
Film - Notes from the Parisian underworld
by David Lamble
When we first lay eyes on him in A Prophet, 19-year-old Malik (protean newcomer Tahar Rahim) bears the scars of the street. Convicted of assaulting a Paris cop (we never learn the circumstances behind this crime) and sentenced to six years in prison, the teenager is tossed into a human inferno ruled by rival and fiercely antagonistic Arab and Corsican gangs. Malik is ordered to murder another inmate, a fellow North African who has the hots for him, as the price for being "protected" by the prison's Corsican don, the white-haired, ferociously ornery Cesar (Niels Arestrup). (read more)
Out There - Short, sweet & somewhat subversive
There's no real suspense in the major categories of the Academy Awards this year, but the two slots which trip most people up in their office pools, Best Animated Short and Best Live-Action Short, are usually anybody's guess. (read more)
Theatre - Butch-and-femme world
Ann Bannon wasn't making a joke when she wrote in 1959 about "a taste for bearded clams," but you can't very well invoke that euphemism for lesbian tendencies and not land a laugh. (read more)
Theatre - Brechtian stage business
Enough people have told director John Doyle that his stripped-down versions of Broadway musicals – in which a small ensemble plays multiple roles as well as the musical instruments – are Brechtian that he apparently decided to direct a play by Bertolt Brecht himself. (read more)
Dance - The spell
of 'Petrouchka'
Petrouchka, which San Francisco Ballet is dancing on a mixed bill that runs through this Sunday, is one of the legendary ballets of the great Ballets Russes. (read more)
Music - Go-to guy for Bruckner
Former San Francisco Symphony Music Director Herbert Blomstedt, now Conductor Laureate, returns to Davies Hall annually for a two-week visit. (read more)
Film - Returning the same, but different
Transgender filmmaker Kimberly Reed goes home again in Prodigal Sons. (read more)
DVD - When Dusty met T.A.M.I.
The year parameters in the title of the performance-driven DVD Dusty Springfield: Once Upon a Time 1964-1969 (Voyage Digital Media/Reelin' in the Years) are somewhat misleading. (read more)
Sweet Lips -
Balls & parties
Empress Angelina Josephina Manicotti and Emperor Paul Maka Poole have completed their year reign and have passed on the crown. (read more)
Leather Events -
Coming up in leather & kink
Bare Chest Calendar 2011 Semi-Final Contest, Red Hanky Night at Chaps, Leather Alliance Weekend begins at the Hotel Whitcomb, and more. (read more)
Out & About - Fairy tail
Are fairy tales just stories with a great hook line, or is there something real underneath those fictions that strikes our hearts? This week, popular fables and fictions take a decidedly deviant turn. (read more)
Lavender Tube - End of the affair:
farewell to Vancouver
The Olympics have ended and were, in our opinion, the best winter games ever. (read more)
Books -
Tabloid pioneer
From The National Enquirer to The New York Post, to countless online blogs and television shows, tabloid journalism is thriving as never before. (read more)
Books -
Shakespeare in love
In The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet, Portland, Oregon writer Myrlin Ambrosia Hermes has fictionally imagined Hamlet's college years, written a prequel to one of Shakespeare's greats – and made a great gay adventure out of it. (read more)
In the Bars - Bar & Nightclub Events,
March 4-11
Truck hosts the Mr. Deviant competition; Juanita More! Smacks the Underground; Hats Off to Ongina at Trigger (and at The Crib next Thursday); Le Perle Degli Squallor makes the Hot Spot even hotter. (read more)
On the Town - Imperial maximus
Congratulations to the newly Reigning Emperor and Empress of San Francisco, Stephen Dorsey and Renita Valdez, crowned last Saturday night at Imperial Coronation amongst the grandeur, opulence, and whimsy of this 45-year-old tradition. (read more)
Karrnal Knowledge - Down & dirty
Two movies from Mustang: Darkroom, with some kink that purposefully shies short of full-throttle scare; and Dirty!, which served up the first sight of Ty LeBeouf's progression from stud pup to stud. (read more)
