For 15 years, San Francisco author Michelle Tea has spearheaded Sister Spit, a loose collaborative of roadtripping queer writers and performers that brings alcohol- and vegan meatloaf-fueled evenings of cabaret-styled provocation to college campuses, community centers, and art spaces around the country. This fall, venerable SF publisher City Lights will launch an entire line of Sister Spit Books, to be curated by Tea, whose own past novels, including the lesbian landmark Valencia bode well for what promises to be an edgy, engaging imprint. We’ll keep SF Agenda readers informed about local authors and events related to Sister Spit, but while we wait for news, we asked Michelle to answer our Insider Tips questionnaire about some of her recommendations for SF visitors and locals.

 The GLBT Historical Society. Their archives are open to the public, and contain really incredible artifacts – Harvey Milk’s Levi’s, Sylvester’s sequined stage costumes, a bar stool from the legendary ‘female impersonators’ nightclub Finnochio’s. They have the entire collection of every On Our Backs ever published (who knew Dorothy Allison was writing for them at the start?! Not me!). One gentleman left the Society a collection of his lovers’ pubic hair, all neatly collected in little glass jars and labeled with their names. It’s really a fun and vast collection, and they also run a storefront museum in Castro on 18th Street that shows different aspects of the archives with cultural context. San Francisco is really lucky to have this institution!

What’s the best spot to take in a view of the city?

Probably the view from the top of Dolores Park. The park itself curves out beneath you like this pretty green bowl, and then beyond that is the city. It’s a great, inspiring view, especially on a sunny day. At night I like the view of the waterfront when you’re driving back over the Bay Bridge. It looks so charming and exciting, old fashioned somehow with the ferry building, but totally not, with the giant buildings.

Michelle Tea has to eat and run (Photo: Amos Mac)

You are one of the best dressed literary ladies around.  Where do you like to shop.

For clothes, in the Mission, I like the Candy Store Collective and The Bell Jar. For vintage Stone Pony and Painted Bird are great and for actual thrifting, Community Thrift and Thrift Town. In a city of mad thrifters you can still find treasures at these places! I also love high-end consignment and discount stores, and good places for that are Sui Generis and in the Castro (second hand stuff you can’t afford the first time around) [Ed.: Honey, love that store, but I can't afford most of their stuff the second time around either!], and My Roomate’s Closet in the Marina (where Philip Lim and Costume National go to die).

For interesting ephemera I like 826 Valencia (which is like a fun house on top of being an actual store, where one can open drawers and discover dioramas, or get themselves swabbed. That would be a trap door of mop heads tumbling down on you.) and Paxton Gate and Viracocha, which is like a beautiful art installation you can buy earrings at.

For books I love Dog Eared Books, which are new and used with a fantastic remainder table. And City Lights is the best is like being in a museum and  wonderful bookstore at the same time. There is so much history, and then shelves of the best edgy and political work that is out right now. A whole alcove dedicated to zines and chapbooks, and a whole floor dedicated to poetry! Unheard of!

What would you tell visitors are San Francisco’s “must eats”? 

I am obsessed with the tacos and burritos from Pancho Villa on 16th Street in the Mission, in particular their chili verde chicken, which is stewed and delicious. I like to get ‘baby burritos’, which are slightly smaller version of the giant ones that can be a bit too much. You can pick spinich or chili tortillas, and there are tons of bean options, like 10 different agua frescas and a giant salsa bar. Also, for a really special and slightly otherworldly dining experience, check out Outerlands, in the Outer Sunset just blocks from the ocean. It looks like it was made by ocean-dwelling gnomes, with driftwood and plants hung on rusting chains, and the food is really great.Their Sunday brunch is awesome, and the wait can be annoying but a few doors down is Trouble Coffee, a little shop that sells only three things – coffee, fresh young coconuts (they slice the top off for you) and thick slices of cinnamon toast. Get some caffeine and a snack to tide you over and browse overpriced but lovely hippie wares at The General Store. If it’s a nice day check out their backyard, which has a big old picnic table and a lovely little greenhouse.

And for the best, most extravagant meal of your life, splurge at Atelier Crenn, a Michelin-starred restaurant where a wildly talented and creative French chef serves up Asian-inspired dishes with the help of molecular gastronomy.The menu is a poem, and on my visit one of the desserts came with smoked fog. Yes, fog.

More food, drink, and—gulp—death, after the jump Read more…

Author Rob Rosen (left) and husband in their beloved Castro.

Local author Rob Rosen is a travel fanatic, and it comes through in his cheeky gay novels including the Sin City romp Divas Las Vegas, the Hawaiian hijinks of Hot Lava, and his latest, Queerwolf, an unlikely blend of road trip, erotica, and horror story. Between  flights of imagination, Rosen—a native New Yorker who’s also lived in Atlanta— makes his home with his husband (a travel agent!) in the Noe Valley neighborhood, or as Rosen dubs it “Stroller Central.” We asked him where he points visitors in San Francisco…

The Castro, which is a gay cultural institution. There my hubby and I can see just about every breed of fabulous queer: leather daddies, lesbians, twinks, muscle queens, drag queens, bears, straight guys clutching their girlfriend’s hands, every race, every size, every age, coming from all over the world to catch a glimpse of how awesome it is to be gay in San Francisco. Fine, it’s a gay ghetto, but it’s our gay ghetto.

Corona Heights, just above The Castro and below Twin Peaks. It’s a nice hike up and virtually no tourists know how to get there or even that it’s there to begin with, and yet the view is nearly 360 and spectacular.

Valencia Street, which is a couple of miles of nothing but shops and restaurants and bars, all with a decidedly funky and young vibe. It’s also affordable, compared to the rest of the city, and teaming with people, mostly cool and hip and local.

Nothing beats Velvet Cantina in The Mission. Awesome margaritas in a quirky setting, with the friendliest waiters (all men and all nice-looking) in the city. The bar fills up with locals and the music is fun and fast and just loud enough that you won’t go deaf. And the chips and salsa are stellar.

Farallon is our favorite fine dining restaurant. It’s downtown and easy to get to, the menu is ever-changing, the wait staff is exceptional, and the decor/atmosphere is both elegant and upbeat. We’ve never had anything but a great time and are always treated well. And save room for dessert because it’s exceptional!

My other half and I love Cafe Ethiopia on Valencia Street. It’s family run, authentic Ethiopian, super cheap, and always delicious.

Well, the irony in this: San Francisco really is the most beautiful city in America, as any guidebook will tell you. So go ahead and do everything in the friggin’ guidebook!

A trumpeting bull elephant seal (Photo: Frank Balthis, California State Parks)

It’s that time of year when the B-52s’ “Love Shack” makes its annual comeback, delighting some and annoying many at barbecues throughout the Bay Area. While I’m certainly in the latter camp , I’ve also been having a much more positive, free-associative reaction to the tune this season.

Whenever I hear croaky vocalist Fred Schneider bellow “I got me a car, and its as big as a whale” my mind flashes on a visit I paid to Año Nuevo State Park—about 90 minutes south of the city, in San Mateo County—and I want to go back.

While gray whales can occasionally be spotted off the coast of this windswept peninsula during the spring, its the extraordinary elephant seals—many even bigger than a car—that you’re virtually guaranteed to spot lounging on the beach all year round. These are gigantic mofos, with males weighing up to 2.5 tons and measuring up to 16 feet long. During breeding season, from late December through March, 2000 or so of these behemoths crash the beach, and you can only hike the grounds on a ranger-guided tour.

In the summer months, though, when the ellies return to molt in huge raggedy patches, visitors can walk amongst them unchaperoned. Just pick up a permit at the park’s entrance and after hiking a few easy miles over undulating scrub and sand, you’ll find yourself in the land of the giants. The elephant seals are remarkably unthreatened by strolling bipeds. But bipeds like myself feel humbled in their presence, marveling at their cyclical journeys to and from the northern California shore.

We also think the sound of the seals is pretty much on par with the B-52s.

The evening's hostess, Diana Agron, and performers from Cirque du Soleil

On Saturday night, John and I attended this year’s third and final GLAAD Media Awards ceremony and gala fundraiser. Hosted by local native and Glee star Diana Agron, the SF event may not have been as star-studded as the New York and Los Angeles ceremonies held earlier this spring, but the evening had a surprising number of emotionally rewarding moments. (The star stud on the SF stage was Mario Lopez, a straight ally who also just happens to be launching his own line of fancy underpants). Among the night’s most powerful elements was the further emergence of another straight ally— Zac Wahls—as his generation’s most accessible and compelling spokesperson GLBT rights. The poised, articulate 20-year-old son of lesbian mothers who came to national attention after addressing the Iowa House Judiciary committee in defense of same-sex marriage last year is broadening his scope, taking on the Boy Scouts of America for their official policy barring GLBT leaders.

On May 30, three days prior to the GLAAD awards, former Eagle Scout Wahls appeared at the Boy Scouts’ annual national meeting in Orlando where he presented a petition signed by over 270,000 Americans on behalf of Jennifer Tyrrell, a lesbian mother from Ohio who was kicked out as a den mother for her son’s troop. Tyrrell, her partner, and their children also appeared onstage.

Adam Harmon and Pete Bennett

The GLAAD Media Award for best online digital journalism article was won by Max Rosenthal of the Huffington post and accepted by its teary-eyed subjects, Adam Harmon and Pete Bennett, who first met as West Point cadets and married within weeks of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal.

Jenny Boylan

For me though, the evening’s highlight came within moments of finding my assigned table, when I discovered we were seated with Jennifer Finney Boylan, whose 2003 memoir of her struggle with gender identity and eventual reassignment surgery–She’s Not There–is one of the most compelling books I’ve read in the last decade. It’s the book that led me to understand and empathize with the T portion of the GLBT community in a way I never had before. Boylan tells her story with such an effective blend of intellect, emotion, wonder, and humor that even the most gender-unconfused readers will feel like they’re spending time with a friend and begin to see past their own ignorances and prejudices. I got to tell her how much her book had impacted me. I also got to tell her that I’d  met her once before, long ago, when she was still a young novelist named James.

Here’s a complete list of the awards presented at all three GLAAD ceremonies this year.

A fabulous (fictional) view at the Palomar Hotel

There’s a 100% guarantee that your view of the bridge will never be obscured by fog in the newly tricked out Golden Gate Suite at the  Palomar Hotel.

Sure, that’s because the “view” from room 512 is a giant, 5-window decal—the Palomar is located way across town from the bridge. Still the whimsical window treatment, headboard, and pillows capture the spirit of the city’s year long celebration. And the nightstands and coffee table–by local artist Richard Bulan—are made of actual bridge steel, salvaged when a pedestrian handrail was replaced in 1993.

Meanwhile, the Hotel Vitale is also jumping on the Golden Gate bandwagon by promoting its views…of the Bay Bridge.

As it happens, San Francisco’s other glorious span is in the midst of its own 75th anniversary year (The Bay Bridge opened to traffic in November, 1936).  For all the Golden Gate hoopla around town these days, the Vitale will become the place to stay come autumn, when the Bay Bridge begins its two-year display of The Bay Lights, Leo Villareal’s site-specific art piece. Over 25,000 white L.E.D bulbs positioned along the west span will be triggered by traffic, weather, and the sway of the bridge to create ever changing patterns of illumination over a mile wide and over 200 feet high. That’s one hell of a night light for your hotel room.

Sweet view from the Vitale Hotel: That's not the Golden Gate either!

This Sunday, May 27, city is going all out to celebrate the official first day of  Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th anniversary year. There’s a full slate of waterfront festivities featuring bridge-related art and science exhibits; displays of antique cars and boats from 1937,  when the bridge was first opened; and an evening fireworks display to cap it all off.

The celebration is just getting under way though, with activities—including daily walking tours rich in details about the bridge’s history and engineering—spanning the summer. So if you decide to skip the crowds this weekend, there’s lots more ahead. One of our favorite upcoming tributes is…The Bridge on the Big Screen Film Series

The Golden Gate may never have won Hollywood’s golden statuette, but the bridge is featured in the films screening on Saturday nights at the Presidio (FREE ADMISSION):

• It Came from Beyond the Sea, May 26 – outdoors
• Howeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco,  June 2 – outdoors
• Superman: The Movie, June 9 – outdoors
• Vertigo, June 16
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, July 21
• A View to a Kill, August 18
• Monsters vs. Aliens, September 15

Alas, 2011′s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, with loads of intense action on the Golden Gate, the streets of San Francisco, Muir Woods, and even the Cable Cars isn’t included in the series.  Click here for an awesome clip.

And get a gander of Grace Jones and Christopher Walken ogling the bridge, after the jump.

Read more…

Lewis DeSimone

Last night, I had the pleasure of joining novelist Lewis DeSimone at a City Arts & Lectures event where John Irving discussed his new novel, In One Person, which chronicles 50 years in the life of a bisexual man.  DeSimone’s own new book, The Heart’s History,  focuses on four years in the life of a circle of gay Bostonians.

DeSimone’s fellow local literary luminary Michele Tea has praised The Heart’s History for its perspective on ”the slow assimilation of a larger gay culture that used to be more angry and badass.”

DeSimone studied at Harvard, but has made his home in San Francisco for 19 years now. He lives in the midst of the Castro, but has badass insider tips that will take you all over town…

What’s your favorite cultural institution in the city?

Davies Symphony Hall.  It’s a beautiful space, with great acoustics and comfortable seating.  One of my favorite events of the year is the Symphony’s opening gala.

How about your favorite view?

My favorite view in the city is from the top of Market Street, when the whole skyline just opens up before you.  My favorite view of the city, though, is on 101 south, when you emerge from the Waldo Tunnel just before the Golden Gate Bridge. Even though I know what to expect by now, every time that view of the bridge and the city emerges, it’s miraculous.

Where do you recommend for shopping?

I love to stroll along 24^th Street in Noe Valley.  It has wonderful little shops and restaurants, and the street life is totally charming.

Dim sum, fine dining, and sightseeing tips, after the jump

Read more…

The Bay Club provides an escape from the office from early morning to late at night

Alas, the San Francisco Agenda’s restaurant coverage doesn’t only show up online.  It also shows up on my waistline.

Which led me to visit Bay Club San Franciso, one of the city’s swankiest gyms.

Frankly, “gym” doesn’t cut it. With five squash courts, 11,000 square feet of yoga and pilates studios, two indoor pools, a full-size basketball court, and a relentless schedule of group exercise classes, this sprawling, light-filled facility at Greenwich and Sansome near Levis Plaza is a daily vacation of sorts for many of its members, who avail themselves of the club’s free shuttle services that zip Financial District workers to and from the club on a regular loop that runs from 6:15 am to 8:45 pm.

If you bus over to the Bay Club for a work break, you may find it suits you to spend the rest of the day here. The enormous locker lounges offer sitting areas with plasma televisions running stock tickers and sportscasts, and there are quiet, glassed-in cubicles where you can plug in a laptop and get some work done between laps in the pool and shvitzes in the steam room. The spacious café has soundproof glass walls overlooking the squash courts where you can enjoy a light meal. And with wifi that flows as freely as the sweat here, you may find the Bay Club more conducive to accomplishment than your office space. Watching the constant parade of ruddy post-exercisers certainly provides far more inspiration to work out than the jellybean jar on your receptionist’s desk.

Pilates and yoga are offered one-on-one, and in group classes

Once you’ve succeeded at knocking out both your work and your workout, reward yourself with a treatment at the club’s full-service Sanctuary Spa. Spa services are also available to the general public…and if you get a facial or massage, you get full access to the Bay Club’s facilities all day.

My partner John and I live high on a hill above the fabulous Sunset neighborhood.  There are tons of little Asian American markets in the vicinity, and its always fun to take a romantic stroll and check out the translated-into-English labels on the packaged snacks.

Darren Criss, live on Sunday night (Photo: Rebecca Sanabria)

Finally slogging your way through your taxes this weekend? Why not celebrate getting it over with by supporting a great local cause, racking up a deduction for next year, and easing your pain by staring into the limpid eyes of a singing heartthrob?

On Sunday night, Glee dreamboat and local native Darren Criss headlines the American Conservatory Theater’s annual season gala. Criss, who will perform half a dozen numbers throughout the fundraiser’s original production, is an alumnus of the A.C.T. actor training program, the gala’s beneficiary. Two-time Tony winner and MacArthur fellow Bill Irwin—who stars in A.C.T.’s upcoming mainstage production of Becket’s Endgame—will also be featured in the evening’s performance. 

Meanwhile, A.C.T.’s  current main stage offering—a smartly designed production of the high concept comedy Maple & Vine—continues through next Sunday, April 22. The fast-paced play finds a contemporary couple trading in their manic Manhattan lifestyle to join a midwestern community of full-time 1950s reenactors. The sleek, period-perfect set and costume designs by Ralph Funicello and Alex Jaeger are terrific.

Gay playwright Jordan Harrison cleverly weaves pointed commentary on good old fashioned racism, homophobia, and misogyny into his portrait of the superficially idyllic Leave It To Beaver era. But he gets a bit tangled in the limits of his premise—how does a thirtysomething Japanese American in 2010 have a sister who was in a WWII internment camp? This is supposed to be about reenactment, not time travel.

Nonetheless, Maple & Vine makes for a zippy, quippy evening’s entertainment, especially at the discounted ticket prices you can find on the web for next week’s performances. It’s like seeing the world through RomneyVision goggles.

A '50s coffee klatsch in Maple & Vine (Photo: Kevin Berne)