Even by SF Standards, Weird Notes on Altered Mobile Road Safety Sign
On my way home from the San Francisco International Film Festival earlier this evening, I rode my bike down Gough Street and near Fell Street noticed a group of four young folks looking at the mobile road safety sign. It contained a few weird messages.
I couldn't resist shooting a short vid of the sign. The readouts state:
Under Shadows! US SF! Tango Pony Mo Fo!
Do you have any idea what the heck all this means?
Reports, proud muckraking, photos, videos and musings from the veteran LGBT and AIDS human rights advocate Michael Petrelis. Based in San Francisco since 1995. Contact: MPetrelis_at_AOL_dot_com. Vote Petrelis for BART Board District 9 in November!
Saturday, May 03, 2014
SFIFF57: Lav Diaz's Fine 4-Hour Filipino Film is a Masterpiece
This is just one of the many reasons why I'm a huge fan of the San Francisco International Film Festival and totally enjoying the 57th edition of it. They show works that simply won't be shown on one of the Bay Area's commercial or museum screens, especially when the running time is marathon length.
Last Sunday, I saw Filipino director Lav Diaz's beautiful four-hour film "Norte, The End of History" and from the first long-take opening shot with the camera ever so slowly inching closer to a group of friends discussing politics and their personal lives, I was hooked. This is the first film of his I've seen and now understand why critics and cineastes have raved about him over the years.
The story, loosely inspired by Dostoyevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment", concerns a young male law student with liberal ideals about changing the political landscape. He murders a local businesswoman and her daughter, crimes for which another man is sentenced to life in prison. Told over a four-year period, the situations and characters reveal complexities about the human condition.
Lead actor Sid Lucero gives a shaded performance, as he skillfully toys with our expectations of potential redemption and reconciliation. The entire cast deserve accolades for this modern masterpiece. My hope is that more films by Diaz eventually unspool on a local screen, allowing me to catch up on his body of work.
Another fine work in the festival is Tsai Ming-Liang's "Stray Dogs", about a homeless father and his two young children struggling to survive in Taipei. As in his earlier films like "Goodbye, Dragon Inn", there's not much plot and plenty of static shots to gaze at and that bring us into the world of the main characters.
When a female supermarket clerk smells the dirty hair of the young girl, she washes her hair and bathes her in the women's restroom, restoring a bit of dignity to the girl, but she shows no curiosity about why the girl is alone in the store or where her father is.
How did they come to such poverty, is there no safety net of social services to assist them and who is the woman toward the end who feeds wild canines that share the abandoned building where the family sleep, and brings some hope to the father that his life will improve? We have to figure all that out and much more on our own.
This may be the director's final film and if it is, that is our loss and a reminder of the importance of the San Francisco International Film Festival and the choices of the programmers. They are certainly keeping this movie-lover happy.
(Photos courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society.)
This is just one of the many reasons why I'm a huge fan of the San Francisco International Film Festival and totally enjoying the 57th edition of it. They show works that simply won't be shown on one of the Bay Area's commercial or museum screens, especially when the running time is marathon length.
Last Sunday, I saw Filipino director Lav Diaz's beautiful four-hour film "Norte, The End of History" and from the first long-take opening shot with the camera ever so slowly inching closer to a group of friends discussing politics and their personal lives, I was hooked. This is the first film of his I've seen and now understand why critics and cineastes have raved about him over the years.
The story, loosely inspired by Dostoyevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment", concerns a young male law student with liberal ideals about changing the political landscape. He murders a local businesswoman and her daughter, crimes for which another man is sentenced to life in prison. Told over a four-year period, the situations and characters reveal complexities about the human condition.
Lead actor Sid Lucero gives a shaded performance, as he skillfully toys with our expectations of potential redemption and reconciliation. The entire cast deserve accolades for this modern masterpiece. My hope is that more films by Diaz eventually unspool on a local screen, allowing me to catch up on his body of work.
Another fine work in the festival is Tsai Ming-Liang's "Stray Dogs", about a homeless father and his two young children struggling to survive in Taipei. As in his earlier films like "Goodbye, Dragon Inn", there's not much plot and plenty of static shots to gaze at and that bring us into the world of the main characters.
When a female supermarket clerk smells the dirty hair of the young girl, she washes her hair and bathes her in the women's restroom, restoring a bit of dignity to the girl, but she shows no curiosity about why the girl is alone in the store or where her father is.
How did they come to such poverty, is there no safety net of social services to assist them and who is the woman toward the end who feeds wild canines that share the abandoned building where the family sleep, and brings some hope to the father that his life will improve? We have to figure all that out and much more on our own.
This may be the director's final film and if it is, that is our loss and a reminder of the importance of the San Francisco International Film Festival and the choices of the programmers. They are certainly keeping this movie-lover happy.
(Photos courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society.)
KQED Gay Reporter Rims Jo Becker, SF City Atty Herrera's Butts
Government official and New York Times reporter said. Period, end of KQED story. That's the best way to sum up this pathetic excuse of a news story from our local public radio and TV outlet.
On Thursday afternoon, ambitious political climber Dennis Herrera turned over his public office at City Hall to access journalist Jo Becker to advance both of their careers, and you can bet he did this all on the taxpayer's dime. Very odd, considering Herrera's staff publicists usually issue releases when their boss sneezes, nothing was posted to his press room page and no tweets were shared about using him for a photo-op.
KQED sent their reporter Scott Shafer, who performed classic journalistic stenography, to rim the butts of Becker and Herrera. High school newspaper reporters could have performed actual journalism. Let's examine some of what Shafer wrote:
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera hosted a book signing and legal victory lap in his office Thursday afternoon. The guest of honor: New York Times writer Jo Becker, whose new book, “Forcing the Spring: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality,” details the legal strategy that culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court striking down Prop. 8 and allowing same-sex couples to resume getting married here after a five-year hiatus. [...]
So, he arranged to assist a writer make a few bucks and transformed his taxpayer-funded office into a temporary book store. Will Herrera do the same when Ted Olson and David Boies release their book in June about the Prop 8 case they brought to the Supreme Court? Well, if Herrera is in it and favorably so, we can expect another book signing in his office. Back to Shafer:
Herrera, whom the book describes as “jovial,” also admitted a little ambivalence about “Forcing the Spring.”
“The book captured my anxiety and concern about my professional credibility really well,” he joked, referring to a passage in the book noting that the city attorney had not questioned a witness at trial in nine years before doing so during the Prop. 8 trial.
Some of Herrera’s staff attorneys, the real local heroes of the book, recalled their shock at having a reporter present as they prepared for the case behind closed doors. “It goes against everything we learned in law school,” one told me, adding it took a while to let down their guard in front of a journalist.
This is interesting. Here we learn that the City's legal business was discussed in front of and recorded by a journalist, presumably used in her book, and attorney-client privileges didn't apply. A genuine reporter would delve into this. How the hell did Herrera and his staffers evade ethical standards and not violate attorney-client privileges? Shafer again:
[Becker] noted that the Supreme Court’s decision invalidating Prop. 8 on technical grounds, rather the legal team’s arguments that marriage was a fundamental right for all couples regardless of sexual orientation, was considered a disappointment.
On the flight back to California from the East Coast after the decision was announced, Becker said, the attorneys and their plaintiffs were “a little down” because they didn’t get the sweeping 50-state ruling they always wanted. [...]
Of course, with a series of recent rulings overturning same-sex marriage bans in states like Utah and Oklahoma making their way through federal courts, they might get that 50-state ruling yet.
I'm no legal eagle, but I do believe that if and when such a ruling comes from the Supreme Court from one of more of the cases now in litigation, it will because of other legal teams and not Ted Olson, David Boies and Chad Griffin, right?
That aside, Shafer omits the continuing firestorm of controversy over the book and various distortions and charges of access journalism lodged against Becker, not to mention her glorification of her primary sources.
Frankly, given Shafer's long previous history serving as a spokesman for politicians Gray Davis, Art Agnos and Ellen Tauscher, if he ever gets tired of performing steno duties for Herrera, he might start working for the City Attorney or another ambitious politician. Btw, in April Shafer was the host of Equality California's gala dinner fundraiser where none other than Herrera was honored. Showing much favoritism toward one political group you have to cover, Scott?
And KQED dares to call him a reporter.
Government official and New York Times reporter said. Period, end of KQED story. That's the best way to sum up this pathetic excuse of a news story from our local public radio and TV outlet.
On Thursday afternoon, ambitious political climber Dennis Herrera turned over his public office at City Hall to access journalist Jo Becker to advance both of their careers, and you can bet he did this all on the taxpayer's dime. Very odd, considering Herrera's staff publicists usually issue releases when their boss sneezes, nothing was posted to his press room page and no tweets were shared about using him for a photo-op.
(Herrera, left, and Becker with hands over her book. Credit: Scott Shafer, KQED.)
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera hosted a book signing and legal victory lap in his office Thursday afternoon. The guest of honor: New York Times writer Jo Becker, whose new book, “Forcing the Spring: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality,” details the legal strategy that culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court striking down Prop. 8 and allowing same-sex couples to resume getting married here after a five-year hiatus. [...]
So, he arranged to assist a writer make a few bucks and transformed his taxpayer-funded office into a temporary book store. Will Herrera do the same when Ted Olson and David Boies release their book in June about the Prop 8 case they brought to the Supreme Court? Well, if Herrera is in it and favorably so, we can expect another book signing in his office. Back to Shafer:
Herrera, whom the book describes as “jovial,” also admitted a little ambivalence about “Forcing the Spring.”
“The book captured my anxiety and concern about my professional credibility really well,” he joked, referring to a passage in the book noting that the city attorney had not questioned a witness at trial in nine years before doing so during the Prop. 8 trial.
Some of Herrera’s staff attorneys, the real local heroes of the book, recalled their shock at having a reporter present as they prepared for the case behind closed doors. “It goes against everything we learned in law school,” one told me, adding it took a while to let down their guard in front of a journalist.
This is interesting. Here we learn that the City's legal business was discussed in front of and recorded by a journalist, presumably used in her book, and attorney-client privileges didn't apply. A genuine reporter would delve into this. How the hell did Herrera and his staffers evade ethical standards and not violate attorney-client privileges? Shafer again:
[Becker] noted that the Supreme Court’s decision invalidating Prop. 8 on technical grounds, rather the legal team’s arguments that marriage was a fundamental right for all couples regardless of sexual orientation, was considered a disappointment.
On the flight back to California from the East Coast after the decision was announced, Becker said, the attorneys and their plaintiffs were “a little down” because they didn’t get the sweeping 50-state ruling they always wanted. [...]
Of course, with a series of recent rulings overturning same-sex marriage bans in states like Utah and Oklahoma making their way through federal courts, they might get that 50-state ruling yet.
I'm no legal eagle, but I do believe that if and when such a ruling comes from the Supreme Court from one of more of the cases now in litigation, it will because of other legal teams and not Ted Olson, David Boies and Chad Griffin, right?
That aside, Shafer omits the continuing firestorm of controversy over the book and various distortions and charges of access journalism lodged against Becker, not to mention her glorification of her primary sources.
Frankly, given Shafer's long previous history serving as a spokesman for politicians Gray Davis, Art Agnos and Ellen Tauscher, if he ever gets tired of performing steno duties for Herrera, he might start working for the City Attorney or another ambitious politician. Btw, in April Shafer was the host of Equality California's gala dinner fundraiser where none other than Herrera was honored. Showing much favoritism toward one political group you have to cover, Scott?
And KQED dares to call him a reporter.
Friday, May 02, 2014
Topic of HRC's Griffin's 1-on-1 Meeting With Veep Joe Biden?
This note was sent this morning to Chad Griffin at the Human Rights Campaign and copied to a few of his colleagues. Once I hear back from HRC, I'll share their reply.
I see from the visitor logs at the White House site that you had a one-on-one meeting in January with Veep Joe Biden. Since there's nothing at the HRC site about this meeting, I'm writing to you for info. I'd like to know what you discussed with him and if there was a direct benefit from the chat for ordinary LGBT people. Gimme a shout today with a response, please. Thanks.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/disclosures/visitor-records
NAMELAST Griffin
NAMEFIRST Chad
NAMEMID H
APPT_START_DATE 1/13/14 12:00
APPT_END_DATE 1/13/14 23:59
Total_People 1
visitee_namelast President
visitee_namefirst Vice
MEETING_LOC WH
MEETING_ROOM VPs Office
This note was sent this morning to Chad Griffin at the Human Rights Campaign and copied to a few of his colleagues. Once I hear back from HRC, I'll share their reply.
I see from the visitor logs at the White House site that you had a one-on-one meeting in January with Veep Joe Biden. Since there's nothing at the HRC site about this meeting, I'm writing to you for info. I'd like to know what you discussed with him and if there was a direct benefit from the chat for ordinary LGBT people. Gimme a shout today with a response, please. Thanks.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/disclosures/visitor-records
NAMELAST Griffin
NAMEFIRST Chad
NAMEMID H
APPT_START_DATE 1/13/14 12:00
APPT_END_DATE 1/13/14 23:59
Total_People 1
visitee_namelast President
visitee_namefirst Vice
MEETING_LOC WH
MEETING_ROOM VPs Office
Thursday, May 01, 2014
NGLTF Leader Rea Carey Joins Exclusive Club
There simply isn't enough scrutiny of all Gay Inc groups, especially the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. They tend to fly under the radar and escape the attention lavished on the likes of the Human Rights Campaign and the leech-on-the-community known as GLAAD.
Other than organizing their annual Creating Change gathering and a large circuit party in Miami, Florida, and issuing statements on big LGBT news of the day, I don't know what the task force does, what it has accomplished that benefits ordinary gays or why it's needed.
A few days ago, I looked at NGLTF's page for their annual reports and was pleased to see they posted three years' worth of tax filings but they were current only until 2012. I emailed their chief financial officer Brian Johnson and he quickly posted their 2013 IRS 990.
Reading the latest compensation level for executive director Rea Carey, I saw she's joined that exclusive club of Gay Inc leaders making more than a quarter million dollars. She was compensated $260,273 for her services.
I don't consider this group to be genuinely community controlled or driven by grassroots concerns. Look at who pays the bills.
They received $875,000 in 2013 from the Haas Jr Foundation, where former NGLTF executive director Matt Foreman runs the gay program and big money is shoveled at them annually.
Then there's the $800,000 from Ford Foundation in 2011 and 2012, and the Arcus Foundation coughed up $260,000 in 2013.
From the David Bohnett Foundation, the task force has raked in $440,000 since 1992, and the most recent annual report for the Gill Foundation for 2012 shows $210,000 was given to the group and in the previous year they received $200,000 from this foundation.
What average LGBT people get from all this money flowing into NGLTF coffers is the big question. Seems to me as with so many nonprofits, the real goal is to keep themselves in business and the top executives well compensated.
There simply isn't enough scrutiny of all Gay Inc groups, especially the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. They tend to fly under the radar and escape the attention lavished on the likes of the Human Rights Campaign and the leech-on-the-community known as GLAAD.
Other than organizing their annual Creating Change gathering and a large circuit party in Miami, Florida, and issuing statements on big LGBT news of the day, I don't know what the task force does, what it has accomplished that benefits ordinary gays or why it's needed.
A few days ago, I looked at NGLTF's page for their annual reports and was pleased to see they posted three years' worth of tax filings but they were current only until 2012. I emailed their chief financial officer Brian Johnson and he quickly posted their 2013 IRS 990.
Reading the latest compensation level for executive director Rea Carey, I saw she's joined that exclusive club of Gay Inc leaders making more than a quarter million dollars. She was compensated $260,273 for her services.
I don't consider this group to be genuinely community controlled or driven by grassroots concerns. Look at who pays the bills.
They received $875,000 in 2013 from the Haas Jr Foundation, where former NGLTF executive director Matt Foreman runs the gay program and big money is shoveled at them annually.
Then there's the $800,000 from Ford Foundation in 2011 and 2012, and the Arcus Foundation coughed up $260,000 in 2013.
From the David Bohnett Foundation, the task force has raked in $440,000 since 1992, and the most recent annual report for the Gill Foundation for 2012 shows $210,000 was given to the group and in the previous year they received $200,000 from this foundation.
What average LGBT people get from all this money flowing into NGLTF coffers is the big question. Seems to me as with so many nonprofits, the real goal is to keep themselves in business and the top executives well compensated.
Pneumonia Again, Caught Early: An Antibiotic & Mike's Love
After biking to my dermatology appointment and shopping at the UN Plaza farmers' market yesterday afternoon, I came home and took a nap because I was feeling quite fatigued. When I woke up, my head was feverish and no matter how much water I drank, my throat was parched.
Something was wrong and when I told Mike it was best to go to the emergency room at the Davies hospital campus, he volunteered to accompany me but said that wasn't necessary. He's been to the ER with me plenty of other occasions and I didn't expect to be gone very long.
Well, despite having really terrific numbers from my last few blood draws and no problems with shortness of breath, the ER doctor determined I had a small patch of pneumonia on the lower left lung. We looked at the X-rays together and I saw that patch and the better looking right lung. Glad we caught this infection early!
The nurse soon had me hooked up to a saline drip with a chaser of an antibiotic flowing into my vein, and we all waited for results of the ER blood draws. At one point, I had the IV needle inserted into my left hand and on the right the nurse was taking my blood pressure and measuring my blood oxygen.
I was given antibiotic and steroid pills to take, given prescriptions to fill today and instructions to come back to the ER if my condition worsened. Many thanks to the ER staff for taking such good care of me on what was a very busy night for them.
When I got home, Mike was happy to learn we had answers to what was troubling me and that I already had a therapeutic massage schedule for today and an appointment tomorrow at the pulmonary clinic. So good to have Mike's love and companionship!
Still here, still queer and still got a lotta living to do!
After biking to my dermatology appointment and shopping at the UN Plaza farmers' market yesterday afternoon, I came home and took a nap because I was feeling quite fatigued. When I woke up, my head was feverish and no matter how much water I drank, my throat was parched.
Something was wrong and when I told Mike it was best to go to the emergency room at the Davies hospital campus, he volunteered to accompany me but said that wasn't necessary. He's been to the ER with me plenty of other occasions and I didn't expect to be gone very long.
Well, despite having really terrific numbers from my last few blood draws and no problems with shortness of breath, the ER doctor determined I had a small patch of pneumonia on the lower left lung. We looked at the X-rays together and I saw that patch and the better looking right lung. Glad we caught this infection early!
The nurse soon had me hooked up to a saline drip with a chaser of an antibiotic flowing into my vein, and we all waited for results of the ER blood draws. At one point, I had the IV needle inserted into my left hand and on the right the nurse was taking my blood pressure and measuring my blood oxygen.
I was given antibiotic and steroid pills to take, given prescriptions to fill today and instructions to come back to the ER if my condition worsened. Many thanks to the ER staff for taking such good care of me on what was a very busy night for them.
When I got home, Mike was happy to learn we had answers to what was troubling me and that I already had a therapeutic massage schedule for today and an appointment tomorrow at the pulmonary clinic. So good to have Mike's love and companionship!
Still here, still queer and still got a lotta living to do!
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Who Got More Ford Fdtn Money, NYT's Jo Becker or Evan Wolfson?
Following the money can lead to mighty interesting funders and grantees.
Over the weekend, Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson wrote about New York Times journalist Jo Becker's appearance in DC to promote her new book about the Prop 8 gay marriage lawsuit "Forcing the Spring". It's stirred up a few hornets' nests of controversy from many LGBT writers and advocates about her very narrow focus on Chad Griffin, David Boies and Ted Olson, and various omissions and distortions about the long fight for gay marriages in America.
Chris reported on an interesting fact that I believe was first uncovered by blogger John Becker, no relation to Jo Becker, for the Bilerico web site which said:
[I]t was revealed [on April 25] that she received a $150,000 grant last year from the Ford Foundation "to research and write a book on the marriage equality movement in the United States."
Curious about that grant, I used the Ford Foundation's search engine to see who else received money from them for LGBT advocacy and research in recent years, and discovered that from 2011 to 2013 they gave Even Wolfson's nonprofit Freedom to Marry grants of $500,000, $175,000 and $1,250,00 for a total of $1,925,000.
So Wolfson received more money from the foundation than Becker and I sure would love to be the fly on the wall if they are ever brought together at the foundation to discuss her book and his advocacy.
Following the money can lead to mighty interesting funders and grantees.
Over the weekend, Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson wrote about New York Times journalist Jo Becker's appearance in DC to promote her new book about the Prop 8 gay marriage lawsuit "Forcing the Spring". It's stirred up a few hornets' nests of controversy from many LGBT writers and advocates about her very narrow focus on Chad Griffin, David Boies and Ted Olson, and various omissions and distortions about the long fight for gay marriages in America.
Chris reported on an interesting fact that I believe was first uncovered by blogger John Becker, no relation to Jo Becker, for the Bilerico web site which said:
[I]t was revealed [on April 25] that she received a $150,000 grant last year from the Ford Foundation "to research and write a book on the marriage equality movement in the United States."
Curious about that grant, I used the Ford Foundation's search engine to see who else received money from them for LGBT advocacy and research in recent years, and discovered that from 2011 to 2013 they gave Even Wolfson's nonprofit Freedom to Marry grants of $500,000, $175,000 and $1,250,00 for a total of $1,925,000.
So Wolfson received more money from the foundation than Becker and I sure would love to be the fly on the wall if they are ever brought together at the foundation to discuss her book and his advocacy.
Monday, April 28, 2014
AHF's Weinstein Denies Tithing Claim Linked to Gilead & HIV Drugs
After publishing my post on AIDS Healthcare Foundation honcho Michael Weinstein's labeling Truvada a party drug for sexually active gay men using it as a prevention method, and pointing out how many millions AHF had received from Gilead over the years, an East Coast based treatment advocate of longstanding sent me this note about what he believes is reason for Weinstein's opposition to the drug as PrEP. The advocate writes:
Weinstein wants more than Gilead has been willing to give. His rationale is that other companies have given a lot when they have a smaller share of the HIV drug market; Gilead has the largest sales and they should "tithe" to AHF proportionately to their sales.
I shared that with Weinstein today and he replied:
There is not now nor has there ever been a tithing concept applied to Gilead or any other company. 95% of Gilead contributions went to supporting treatment for poor countries. We knew we were jeopardizing the support from Gilead when we first took them on on pricing and then PrEP. I don't know why it is so difficult for people to believe that this is our principled position.
We currently get no support from any drug company other than a limited amount of drug donations in the developing world where the overwhelming majority of our patients reside.
AHF has bitten the hand that feeds us, when needed, from day one.
Our 2014 budget is $904 million. Any amount of support from Gilead or any company would not be significant. I wonder why the opposite question is not being asked: How are the tens of millions that Gilead is spreading around to promote PrEP contributing to the support that groups are giving them on pricing and PrEP?
Next, I contacted Gilead's Amy Flood and she responded thus:
Gilead is not promoting PrEP; that means there are no dollars being allocated to promotional activities by Gilead or by any organization receiving grant funding from Gilead; this is a stipulation of our grant-making.
The company provides financial support for third-party non-profit groups conducting educational activities with respect to the role of PrEP as part of comprehensive HIV prevention; that support has totaled approximately $3 million in the past two years.
Additionally, Gilead has in some cases provided support via a donation of drug for the conduct of clinical trials and demonstration projects to evaluate PrEP.
Here's my two cents on this. First, we need to keep shining a spotlight on Weinstein's Truvada views and Gilead's responses.
Next, I recall a tithing idea floating around for AIDS Inc groups during my time on ACT UP/NYC's Treatment + Data Committee and didn't think it was necessarily such a bad idea. Still don't, in theory. But the larger picture of sky-high prices charged by Gilead and all of Big Pharma for their HIV medicines is an issue that never goes away.
It's long irked me that AIDS Inc hasn't applied sustained pressure on Big Pharma to reduce domestic prices of HIV cocktails and didn't lobby during negotiations over Obamacare when drug pricing competitiveness, or lack thereof, was on the Congressional table.
At best, AIDS Inc has lobbied mightily at the federal and state levels for government payment of the cocktails for qualified people living with HIV.
And this is my bit of AIDS treatment and prevention activism for the day.
After publishing my post on AIDS Healthcare Foundation honcho Michael Weinstein's labeling Truvada a party drug for sexually active gay men using it as a prevention method, and pointing out how many millions AHF had received from Gilead over the years, an East Coast based treatment advocate of longstanding sent me this note about what he believes is reason for Weinstein's opposition to the drug as PrEP. The advocate writes:
Weinstein wants more than Gilead has been willing to give. His rationale is that other companies have given a lot when they have a smaller share of the HIV drug market; Gilead has the largest sales and they should "tithe" to AHF proportionately to their sales.
I shared that with Weinstein today and he replied:
There is not now nor has there ever been a tithing concept applied to Gilead or any other company. 95% of Gilead contributions went to supporting treatment for poor countries. We knew we were jeopardizing the support from Gilead when we first took them on on pricing and then PrEP. I don't know why it is so difficult for people to believe that this is our principled position.
We currently get no support from any drug company other than a limited amount of drug donations in the developing world where the overwhelming majority of our patients reside.
AHF has bitten the hand that feeds us, when needed, from day one.
Our 2014 budget is $904 million. Any amount of support from Gilead or any company would not be significant. I wonder why the opposite question is not being asked: How are the tens of millions that Gilead is spreading around to promote PrEP contributing to the support that groups are giving them on pricing and PrEP?
Next, I contacted Gilead's Amy Flood and she responded thus:
Gilead is not promoting PrEP; that means there are no dollars being allocated to promotional activities by Gilead or by any organization receiving grant funding from Gilead; this is a stipulation of our grant-making.
The company provides financial support for third-party non-profit groups conducting educational activities with respect to the role of PrEP as part of comprehensive HIV prevention; that support has totaled approximately $3 million in the past two years.
Additionally, Gilead has in some cases provided support via a donation of drug for the conduct of clinical trials and demonstration projects to evaluate PrEP.
Here's my two cents on this. First, we need to keep shining a spotlight on Weinstein's Truvada views and Gilead's responses.
Next, I recall a tithing idea floating around for AIDS Inc groups during my time on ACT UP/NYC's Treatment + Data Committee and didn't think it was necessarily such a bad idea. Still don't, in theory. But the larger picture of sky-high prices charged by Gilead and all of Big Pharma for their HIV medicines is an issue that never goes away.
It's long irked me that AIDS Inc hasn't applied sustained pressure on Big Pharma to reduce domestic prices of HIV cocktails and didn't lobby during negotiations over Obamacare when drug pricing competitiveness, or lack thereof, was on the Congressional table.
At best, AIDS Inc has lobbied mightily at the federal and state levels for government payment of the cocktails for qualified people living with HIV.
And this is my bit of AIDS treatment and prevention activism for the day.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
SFIFF57: Over Two-Days, Five Films Including Fabulous 'Queen Margot'
Try as I did to keep up my energy for a three films on Friday, I was able to see only two and they were both satisfying and a great way to start off the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival.
From Romania, "When Night Falls on Bucharest, or Metabolism", was a droll look at a manipulative (is there any other kind?) director in the middle of shooting his latest film. Told in long takes, after opening scene explaining why scenes can only be 11-minutes long, the action is mostly talking leavened with sly humor and the camera rarely moves. Occasionally, it pans slightly to the left or right, but this is very much a film with a proud gazing stare and actors worth watching.
After that I saw the quite unique documentary "Manakamana", which is a holy shrine in Nepal and destination of people on pilgrimages or those visiting for the soaring beauty. A camera and microphone were stationed in the cable cars that hoist people, or in one instance half a dozen goats, up to the shrine or villages dotting the mountain, and the camera never moves.
What makes this film wonderfully cinematic is the faces of pilgrims in the cable cars, their reactions (or blase stares) to the scenery and length of the trips up or down the mountain, and the vast forests they soar over. This is one documentary I would see again.
On Saturday, I managed a triple header, something I have not done in years. I started with finally seeing the late opera and film director Patrice Chereau's restored director's cut of his 1994 epic "Queen Margot", starring a radiant and fantastic Isabel Adjani, pictured. Chereau was an out gay artiste and he fills the screens with the most handsome 25 to 30 year old supporting actors and extras, that add to the overall sumptuous production design.
Warring French Catholics and Protestants, royal intrigues and betrayals, human and animal blood and gore, operatic coronation stagings, the most eye-pleasing costumes and decors, fast-paced editing that does not lose the audience with numerous subplots, and top-notch acting all around but the great '60s Italian siren Virna Lisi steals every scene she's in. "Queen Margot" is being distributed by the Cohen Media Group and it is one movie that requires a big screen with a great sound system.
Next up was the new film from Greece "Standing Aside, Watching" that held my interest well-enough but needed a stronger script and clearer motivations explained for several of the characters. The Greek economic crisis forces a young women to leave her life in Athens and return to her seaside home town. One female friend engages in self-destructive behavior such as shoplifting at the same store and suffers physical and mental abuse from a sometime lover, without any explanation. Engaging camerawork and I expect the director Yorgas Servetas to expand his storytelling skills with his next film.
I closed the evening watching a terrific Estonian-Georgian film titled "Tangerines". During a regional war in 1992-1993, a nearly empty Estonian village contains two farmers who remain growing and harvesting a tangerine orchard. A skirmish between Estonian soldiers and Chechen mercenaries fighting on behalf of the Georgians leaves two young wounded fighters in the care of one of the farmers.
An allegory for the larger political situation, the soldiers despise each other and vow fatal revenge on the other once they are restored to health, but they come to an understanding that shows their common humanity and soon some of the hostility melts. Even with a tragic deadly climax, "Tangerines" still concluded with a small and well-earned note of optimism.
Click here for all the necessary info about the films and plots, dates and times of screenings and how to purchase tickets. See you at the San Francisco International Film Festival!
(All images courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society.)
Try as I did to keep up my energy for a three films on Friday, I was able to see only two and they were both satisfying and a great way to start off the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival.
From Romania, "When Night Falls on Bucharest, or Metabolism", was a droll look at a manipulative (is there any other kind?) director in the middle of shooting his latest film. Told in long takes, after opening scene explaining why scenes can only be 11-minutes long, the action is mostly talking leavened with sly humor and the camera rarely moves. Occasionally, it pans slightly to the left or right, but this is very much a film with a proud gazing stare and actors worth watching.
After that I saw the quite unique documentary "Manakamana", which is a holy shrine in Nepal and destination of people on pilgrimages or those visiting for the soaring beauty. A camera and microphone were stationed in the cable cars that hoist people, or in one instance half a dozen goats, up to the shrine or villages dotting the mountain, and the camera never moves.
What makes this film wonderfully cinematic is the faces of pilgrims in the cable cars, their reactions (or blase stares) to the scenery and length of the trips up or down the mountain, and the vast forests they soar over. This is one documentary I would see again.
On Saturday, I managed a triple header, something I have not done in years. I started with finally seeing the late opera and film director Patrice Chereau's restored director's cut of his 1994 epic "Queen Margot", starring a radiant and fantastic Isabel Adjani, pictured. Chereau was an out gay artiste and he fills the screens with the most handsome 25 to 30 year old supporting actors and extras, that add to the overall sumptuous production design.
Warring French Catholics and Protestants, royal intrigues and betrayals, human and animal blood and gore, operatic coronation stagings, the most eye-pleasing costumes and decors, fast-paced editing that does not lose the audience with numerous subplots, and top-notch acting all around but the great '60s Italian siren Virna Lisi steals every scene she's in. "Queen Margot" is being distributed by the Cohen Media Group and it is one movie that requires a big screen with a great sound system.
Next up was the new film from Greece "Standing Aside, Watching" that held my interest well-enough but needed a stronger script and clearer motivations explained for several of the characters. The Greek economic crisis forces a young women to leave her life in Athens and return to her seaside home town. One female friend engages in self-destructive behavior such as shoplifting at the same store and suffers physical and mental abuse from a sometime lover, without any explanation. Engaging camerawork and I expect the director Yorgas Servetas to expand his storytelling skills with his next film.
I closed the evening watching a terrific Estonian-Georgian film titled "Tangerines". During a regional war in 1992-1993, a nearly empty Estonian village contains two farmers who remain growing and harvesting a tangerine orchard. A skirmish between Estonian soldiers and Chechen mercenaries fighting on behalf of the Georgians leaves two young wounded fighters in the care of one of the farmers.
An allegory for the larger political situation, the soldiers despise each other and vow fatal revenge on the other once they are restored to health, but they come to an understanding that shows their common humanity and soon some of the hostility melts. Even with a tragic deadly climax, "Tangerines" still concluded with a small and well-earned note of optimism.
Click here for all the necessary info about the films and plots, dates and times of screenings and how to purchase tickets. See you at the San Francisco International Film Festival!
(All images courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society.)
Weekend Woof #73: Chilly Week, Attractive Dudes
Hard to believe I've kept up this series of images of fine eye-pleasing men and boys for more than seventy posts, but I guess it just goes to prove again that lustful desires are rarely far from the minds of men regardless of sexual orientation. Here's the latest batch of handsome dudes to catch my and grace the lens of my pocket camera.
It's impossible to pick a favorite this week among this fine group of guys. We may have had chilly days this week, but that didn't put a damper on finding attractive fellas to photograph. And how was your week for man-watching on the streets of San Francisco?
Hard to believe I've kept up this series of images of fine eye-pleasing men and boys for more than seventy posts, but I guess it just goes to prove again that lustful desires are rarely far from the minds of men regardless of sexual orientation. Here's the latest batch of handsome dudes to catch my and grace the lens of my pocket camera.
It's impossible to pick a favorite this week among this fine group of guys. We may have had chilly days this week, but that didn't put a damper on finding attractive fellas to photograph. And how was your week for man-watching on the streets of San Francisco?
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