The open backyard of the Eagle Bar at 12th and Harrison was the site for a fundraiser on Saturday afternoon for a leather group called Mama's Family.
Sandy "Mama" Reinhardt (above left) is the matriarch of a group of leather kings and queens that started with ten barflies in San Francisco 18 years ago, according to her website.
It has blossomed into a worldwide network with hundreds of members, putting on parties and contests that generally double as fundraisers for AIDS charities and breast cancer charities.
Though the Saturday afternoon crowd was fairly small, the number of politicians showing up was impressive, with State Senator Mark Leno starting off the speeches with a certificate and proclamation for organizer Troy Brunet (above right).
What was really on his mind, however, was the recent San Bruno natural gas explosion, and he launched into a short stemwinder about the bad behavior of PG&E. It was quite inspiring, and I only wish that he felt as strongly about protecting his constituents from the Florida real estate gangsters known as the Lennar Corporation.
Though the Eagle bar is in District 6, District 8 Supervisor candidate Rebecca Prozan (above left) also showed up. Her political mentors were the late Tom Lantos, Peninsula Congressional Zionist, and Willie Brown, Jr., the former San Francisco Mayor. Neither one were favorite politicians, but I haven't found anybody in the local political world who doesn't personally like Rebecca Prozan. Maybe it's because she actually seems to love campaigning and making things better for constituents.
For instance, Ray Tilton (above) was assaulted this summer in the Castro during Gay Pride weekend. (Click here for an article with photos at the Bay Area Reporter.) "It was bad. I got fag-bashed about thirteen years ago and kept quiet about it because I thought it was embarrassing. And then this happened, and all that stuff from years ago came bubbling out. But this time I got mad, started a Facebook page, and had a Red (for Angry) Saturday rally the next weekend in the Castro and hundreds of people showed up. In the middle of it, Rebecca got hold of me and kept calling me and helped me in so many ways I can't tell you. So I'm definitely working on her campaign."
Showing up slightly later was another candidate for District 8, Rafael Mandelman (above right) appropriately attired in leather head to toe. He was handing out campaign literature to a pair of Mama's Boys who seemed to be in love, and one of them returned the favor with his own campaign literature urging his election as Grand Duke of San Francisco next weekend.
As Mama says, "Do it from the heart, with manners and respect."
Superior Court Judge hopeful Michael Nava, along with his legally married partner George Herzog (above right with Pardeep Saini and John Trout), hosted a thank-you dinner over the Labor Day weekend for campaign volunteers.
The meal for two dozen people was from a local Mexican restaurant, the food and the company were great...
...and there was an interesting multiracial mixture of gay and straight, young and old, such as Sandy Mori (above) who had wandered into the Nava campaign as a Japantown activist because she liked him.
Last Thursday Nava (above) held a fundraiser at Medjool, the Mission District restaurant that has been ground zero for gentrification controversies.
We started at the rooftop bar and restaurant which couldn't have been lovelier, but the fundraiser turned out to be downstairs on the mezzanine level.
Laurel Muniz and her husband from Bernal Heights showed up...
...along with dignified looking characters from the Latino Lawyers caucus...
...and the former Chair of the California Democratic Party, Art Torres (above with Nava).
Along with Mary Ann Massenburg and Gabriel White (above), Nava is going to need all the help he can get. California's judiciary are circling the wagons over this race and are holding expensive fundraisers for Nava's opponent, the sitting judge Richard Ulmer, maintaining the unconstitutional stance that judges should never have to face an election. The negative ads are starting with a series of telephone "push polls" where interviewees are being asked, "Would you be less inclined to vote for Nava if you knew he was an opportunist?" or "Would you be less inclined to vote for Nava if you knew he lived in Daly City?"
Nava does live just over the border from San Francisco in a modest home in Daly City, on the foggy Pacific bluffs overlooking a popular hang gliding location. It seems that judges are not legally required to live in the counties where they sit, and Daly City was the only place Nava and Herzog could afford six years ago. His opponent Judge Ulmer's house is in Daly City's nearby antithesis, namely Hillsborough, though Ulmer rents an aparment in Park Merced so his daughter can be close to her private school at St. Ignatius, according to his website.
However, the last word I would use about Nava's character is "opportunistic." In fact, the glad-handing and backstabbing of politics seems to be utterly antithetical to his nature, and it's amazing he has managed to survive this far into the political process. To lend a hand before the November 2nd election, click here for Nava's campaign website, and join the volunteer army. There are some wonderful people involved.
The San Francisco Symphony in Davies Hall hosted the official opening of Society's fall season with a couple of French orchestral bon-bons framing Jessye Norman in the middle.
Society, meaning the wealthier citizens of San Francisco connected by marriage, schools, and dynastic family fortunes, is presumably returning from a summer in Lake Tahoe or Napa Valley or Pajaro Dunes and this is their getting back together party.
Opening night at the San Francisco Opera, which traditionally takes place on the Friday after Labor Day, was for decades the official beginning of the Society Season. However, the San Francisco Symphony has been competing for that honor ever since Davies Hall opened 30 years ago, and tends to have their opening gala a few weekdays before the Opera company's Friday.
The all-evening parties in City Hall, a tent, and the Davies Hall lobby are fun, and orchestra musicians such as Robin Sutherland (above middle) might even join you.
There's also more than a hint of a "Real Housewives of San Francisco" vibe that's hard to ignore.
