Wednesday, September 29, 2010

A Week of Wonderful Events: Erotic Films, Art Auctions, Anita Bryant, and a Leather Brunch


Lady Bear and Hugz Bunny

The 5th Annual Good Vibrations Indie Erotic Film Festival began with a bang on Sept. 23. Uninhibited entertainers wearing very little clothing danced and pranced at the Castro Theatre mezzanine before the erotic films were screened. Some of the Castro’s habitually naked guys were there, but were not recognized with their clothes on. The VIP party of over 100 people was overwhelmingly female, and the fashions ranged from glamor to fetish.


Peaches Christ

The film judging was unusual even by San Francisco film festival standards. Drag filmmaker and midnight movie icon Peaches Christ appeared on stage wearing a bizarre Spanish outfit, and she was joined by Lady Bear in bright yellow and black and Hugz Bunny in scarlet. They situated themselves on stage in movie set chairs before a crowd of over 600 and announced that they were to be “the judging bitches” and then Good Vibration’s Carol Queen was introduced as the “nice judge.” Each of the twelve films was screened and then the lights were switched back on the stage for the judges’ comments, which ranged from wanting to commit oral sex acts on film actors to announcements of an after party at the Lookout. Gay men savored the multiple male-on-male sex acts, including impossible fantasy positions in “The Filth Element” that included Seattle’s Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

While the films were being screened there was a benefit for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) and the Imperial Council of San Francisco at Trigger Lounge. The Imperial Council’s Empress XXX Donna Sachet hosted the soirĂ©e with NGLTF’s Sydney Andrews, Russell Raybal, and David Alexander. An appearance by primal Julian Marshburn reminded everyone that our community also has its sexy champion fundraisers who draw the affluent donors.


Art for AIDS benefit for the UCSF AIDS Health Project

The Art for AIDS benefit for the UCSF AIDS Health Project was held at the Galleria on Sept. 24. While auctioneer Patrick Walsh worked the stage, a silent auction continued around the edges of the vast room. The Castro was represented among the artists by Greg Cassin, who again used a religious theme in his work, and there was a nude male torso drawing by Ytaelana Lopez. The female nudes were subtle, except for a beach photograph by Jock Sturges. There was a popular moist cake passed around on the first floor and the VIP mezzanine’s culinary highpoint was the dim sum of Chef Marc Passetti of the famous Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel.


Art for AIDS benefit for the UCSF AIDS Health Project

In contrast to the careful nudes and self censorship by LGBT artists and photographers at the Art for AIDS show, the San Francisco Leather Daddies and Boys presented their erotic art auction on the same evening at the Eagle Tavern. The drawings, paintings, and photographs displayed a panorama of extreme sex acts and kinky fetishes. Master auctioneer Tom Rodgers worked the mostly leather-clad crowd mercilessly to raise funds for Visual AID. Greatly missed Scott O’Hara was spotted performing auto-erotically on a signed poster, and the works of Hun and Rex were also auctioned. Visual AID’s executive director Julie Blankenship mixed comfortably with leather daddies Tom Rodgers, Patrick Batt, Steve Gaynes, and Glen Tanking to present the twelfth annual auction to benefit people with illnesses and disabilities who want to continue their art creation.


Auctioneer Tom Rodgers


Visual AID volunteer Spike Lomibao with executive director Julie Blankenship

New Conservatory Theatre celebrated the opening of “Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins” on Sept. 25 with champagne, mimosas, and delicious San Francisco-style cheesecake. The cast and directing by Dennis Lickteig was excellent, and it is a complex and emotional story telling of coming out during the Viet Nam War era. Michael Doppe was a standout as the erratic gay country boy and Marie O’Donnell beautifully handled a transformation from homophobic to caring mother. Tom Orr and David Bicha shocked, surprised, and pleased the after show reception guests with songs from their “Dirty Little Showtunes” show which opens Dec. 3.


New Conservatory Theatre executive director Ed Decker, impressive star Michael Doppe, and Marie O'Donnell, who superbly played his mother

Donna Sachet presented her annual Pre-Folsom Street Fair brunch on Sept. 26 at her Imperial Palace. And again it was a mass turnout of the Leather/S&M fetish elite. Women and men title-holders, leather daddies, leather boys, and the people vital to Sachet’s charity functions stopped by for a gourmet brunch and luscious berry-laden cheesecake. Hunky bartenders at the open bar and efficient chefs served the guests the sustenance they would need for walking the SOMA blocks. The sexual tension level shot up every time someone unzipped their leather pants or chaps and yanked them off or pulled off their rubber hip boots to expose a leather jockstrap. Many of the men felt more exposed than usual but the 90 degree heat demanded some stripping. The house party ended as a migration of impertinent bare buttocks paraded down Castro Street.


Sexy Drew with sexy Donna Sachet

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