Camera Obscura's 'Virtue' – rarely-seen cautionary tale at the Roxie

Filmmaker Camera Obscura's tech-dystopian "Virtue" comes to us like a latter day version of James Whale's "Frankenstein" to assure us that indeed, "Fire bad!" It also features a bevy of 1990s SF luminaries.

Craig Seligman's astonishing 'Who Does That Bitch Think She Is? Doris Fish and the Rise of Drag'

Doris Fish was everywhere in the 1980s. It seemed if she didn't exist someone would have had to invent her. Craig Seligman's "Who Does That Bitch Think She Is? Doris Fish and the Rise of Drag" reminds us that someone did. That someone was Philip Mills.

Starr-gazing - 'Remember Me, Vicki Starr: The Visual History of a Trans Renegade' uncovers an unknown history

The 2021 photography book "Remember Me, Vicki Starr: The Visual History of a Trans Renegade" by Albert Tanquero and Lewis Rawlinson definitively answers the question of whether LGBT performers worked in historic North Beach nightclubs.

BARchive: Between the cities; an LGBTQ history of the Mid-Peninsula

Prior to Stonewall, one of the few ways we discover LGBTQ history is through encounters with the law, along with bar openings and closings, as in San Mateo and northern Santa Clara counties.

Besties nightlife: back and better than ever

This year the Besties are even more of a celebration than usual, because this year, after our (ahem) unexpected pause, our nightspots gave us the opportunity to reconnect with old friends, and to celebrate a community reborn.

Tripping through history: 'The Letters of Thom Gunn' as a roadmap to San Francisco's past

'The Letters of Thom Gunn' is both an intimate portrait of the poet and a window on the development of what would become gay and leather culture, and the rise of the hippies and drug culture.

Wakefield Poole (February 24, 1936 – October 27, 2021) Remembering a visionary

Although he worked as a dancer, choreographer, and shop owner, Wakefield Poole is best known for his groundbreaking feature-length gay erotic films, particularly 'Boys in the Sand.'

Larry Townsend: celebrating the man behind 'The Leatherman's Handbook'

Being Folsom Week, we dive into the early roots of leather culture, specifically in California. 'The Life and Times of Larry Townsend: Saluting the 50th Anniversary of The Leatherman's Handbook,' by Jack Fritscher, is a festive romp.

Romanovsky and Phillips: gay music duo's fascinating, groundbreaking history

Incredible as it seems, it has now been more than 20 years since Romanovsky and Phillips called it quits. Part of the reason it seems so amazing is that accolades continue to pour in about them all these years later.

The bars that brought us the B.A.R. - from the Tavern Guild to the Bay Area Reporter

The Bay Area Reporter first published on April 1, 1971, two years after the New York Stonewall Riots. But the paper's emergence grew not out of activism, but from San Francisco's growing gay bar scene.

When Marlene played the Bay: Dietrich's Concerts were a sensation

The opportunity to see Marlene Dietrich in person came 23 years after her U.S. film dbut. In 1953 the Sahara Las Vegas offered her $30,000 per week to perform. And so her career as a cabaret singer was born. The film star later performed in San Francisco.

Blakk to the Future: The Agitprop of Joan Jett-Blakk's Queer Visibility

Queer Nation Chicago inspired Terence Alan Smith to become Joan Jett-Blakk and run a write-in campaign amid the reelection campaign of Richard M. Daley, and later, a write-in run for the presidency.

Rediscovering 'Mother Camp' - Esther Newton, Skip Arnold and drag anthropology in the 1960s

Skip Arnold's historic drag act became one of many fascinating anthropological subjects by scholar Esther Newton, whose groundbreaking dissertation, once ignored, has found new readers.

The Polly Polaroid Paradox: Tracking down the woman behind the legend

Polly Polaroid was a presence for around two decades in the gay bars of San Francisco – and yet no one seemed to remember her story. She would make her rounds in the bars, saying "Photo to remember the evening?" to all patrons – and yet she disappeared an

Memory's River: vibrant pre-AIDS history revealed in Mark Abramson's 'River Days, River Nights'

The town of Guerneville and the Russian River area are lovingly portrayed in Mark Abramson's latest, 'River Days, River Nights.' The memoir covers the period from 1976 through 1984, an era of considerable change for the region.

The Forgotten Pandemic - Echoes of AIDS History in COVID-19

Flurries of articles contrasting COVID-19 with HIV have been published in the past few months. None of them initially drew my attention, as the pandemics seem quite different from one another.

Bestie Bars - Closed for business, but open in our hearts

With the closure of bars due to Covid-19, reading about which bars are best in the Bay Area according to our readers may be a bit like looking through the window of a candy shop when it's closed.

Bestie events: Days and nights of future, past

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. Celebrating the past year and with an eye toward the future, let's bring on this year's Bestie-winning events.

Charlotte Coleman: Gay bar superstar: lesbian entrepreneur's 45 years of success

Charlotte Coleman's bars grew from the harassment of the 1950s. But the unintended consequence of losing a job was that she wasn't just a bar owner: she had such business acumen that some of her bars still exist till today.

Big Glass Half-full - LGBT life in the Fillmore of the 1950s and '60s

"We used to go to jazz clubs after 2am and drink liquor out of coffee cups. Relations between blacks and whites were excellent. They were glad to have us out in the Fillmore. We were treated like queens, and I don't mean in that sense!"

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