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Author: Alfredo Casuso

With Gratitude from David Perry & Associates, Inc.

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Thanksgiving 
— by Edgar Guest

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Gettin’ together to smile an’ rejoice,An’ eatin’ an’ laughin’ with folks of your choice;An’ kissin’ the girls an’ declarin’ that theyAre growin’ more beautiful day after day;Chattin’ an’ braggin’ a bit with the men,Buildin’ the old family circle again;Livin’ the wholesome an’ old-fashioned cheer,Just for awhile at the end of the year.

Greetings fly fast as we crowd through the doorAnd under the old roof we gather once moreJust as we did when the youngsters were small;Mother’s a little bit grayer, that’s all.Father’s a little bit older, but stillReady to romp an’ to laugh with a will.Here we are back at the table againTellin’ our stories as women an’ men.

Bowed are our heads for a moment in prayer;Oh, but we’re grateful an’ glad to be there.Home from the east land an’ home from the west,Home with the folks that are dearest an’ best.Out of the sham of the cities afarWe’ve come for a time to be just what we are.Here we can talk of ourselves an’ be frank,Forgettin’ position an’ station an’ rank.

Give me the end of the year an’ its funWhen most of the plannin’ an’ toilin’ is done;Bring all the wanderers home to the nest,Let me sit down with the ones I love best,Hear the old voices still ringin’ with song,See the old faces unblemished by wrong,See the old table with all of its chairsAn’ I’ll put soul in my Thanksgivin’ prayers.

Heritage Auctions

RMS Titanic Icon Auctions on December 9 & 10

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HOLLYWOOD LEGEND SURFACES:
THE ORIGINAL “TITANIC CHERUB” FROM JAMES CAMERON’S
EPIC FILM HEADS TO AUCTION

media contact: DP&A, Inc / (415) 676-7007 / news@davidperry.com

Iconic Hollywood Artifact Indelibly Linked with “Jack & Rose” Romance as Portrayed by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio

Heritage Auctions • December 9 & 10, 2025

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21 November 2025 – Los Angeles, CA:  One of the most recognizable and beloved set pieces from James Cameron’s Titanic is heading to auction on December 9 & 10 —the original Grand Staircase Cherub, screen-used in multiple scenes of the 1997 blockbuster, including the pivotal moment when Jack and Rose meet in front of the First Class Dining Room, in addition to being seen throughout the film, including the climactic moment when the Atlantic Ocean bursts through the skylight and floods the staircase, and cherub, (see link below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaWFBoBzmK4&t=33s

The ornate cherub fixture—crafted for the film’s full-scale recreation of the RMS Titanic’s Grand Staircase—was gifted by the production to Martin Biallas, CEO of SEE Global Entertainment, whose immersive exhibitions have brought the world’s most famous ship to millions of fans. It now resurfaces as a rare offering in Heritage Auctions’ Entertainment & Music Memorabilia Signature Auction (Sale #7433)

Titanic' director would change these things

The piece arrives at auction just months after another Titanic prop—the floating wall panel on which Jack and Rose famously floated—sold for more than $700,000, signaling a surging appetite among collectors of iconic cinema artifacts. Early estimates suggest the “Titanic Cherub” could be even more valuable to collectors, or museums.

A Screen Icon in Its Own Right:
The cherub appears repeatedly throughout Titanic, most notably during Rose DeWitt Bukater’s early descent of the Grand Staircase—a moment that became one of the most reproduced stills in modern cinema. Its image can be spotted in film stills, promotional photography, behind-the-scenes footage, and even theme park recreations. For many fans, it is synonymous with Cameron’s obsessive detail and the grandeur of the ill-fated ocean liner.

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“This cherub has been part of my life—and part of SEE’s story—for nearly three decades,” said Martin Biallas, CEO of SEE Global Entertainment. “James Cameron and his team created a masterpiece in every single detail, and this piece embodies that artistry. I’ve been honored to steward it. Now it’s time for someone else to own a treasure from the greatest cinematic voyage ever filmed.”

“This is a marquee piece from one of the most influential films of all time,” said Brian Chanes, Senior Director of Hollywood/Entertainment at Heritage Auctions. “Demand for screen-used Titanic artifacts is at a historic high. The recent sale of the ‘wall panel’ underscored that momentum—and the cherub stands at the very heart of the film’s most cherished scenes.”

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“As someone who lectures on maritime history—and has spent a career studying the legacy of the Titanic—I can say with certainty that Cameron’s film has become a cultural artifact in its own right,” said David Perry, maritime historian. “This cherub isn’t just a film prop—it’s part of the global mythology of the ship itself. It represents how the story of Titanic continues to evolve, inspire, and fascinate new generations.”

About the Item:
The Heritage Auctions listing describes the piece as:

“An iconic screen-used Grand Staircase cherub fixture from James Cameron’s Titanic (TCF, 1997). Used prominently throughout production and visible during multiple key sequences, it stands as one of the film’s most photographed set elements.”

The fixture includes dual components:

  • The screen-used cherub figure
  • The accompanying ornate base

Auction Details


About SEE Global Entertainment:
SEE Global Entertainment is a worldwide leader in immersive exhibitions and live experiences, bringing iconic stories—from Titanic to Michelangelo to the pop-cultural phenomenon of Monopoly Lifesized—to millions of guests across five continents. Led by CEO Martin Biallas since 1993, SEE has redefined how audiences encounter art, culture, and entertainment.

About Heritage Auctions: Heritage Auctions is the largest auction house founded in the United States and the world’s leading expert in entertainment memorabilia. With global offices and a commitment to exceptional service, Heritage delivers record-setting results for collectors, institutions, and consignors across more than 40 categories.

YBCA Spring 2026 Season “Celebrates Fierce Imagination and Queer & Trans Artistry”

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Media Contacts:
Lauren Macmadu / (415) 350-1884 / lmacmadu@ybca.org 
David Perry / (415) 676-7007 / news@davidperry.com 

YBCA Announces Spring 2026 Season Elevating Art
At The Intersection of Identity and Imagination

Featuring exhibitions by renowned artists and guest curators, alongside collaborations with the GLBT Historical Society and Queer Ancestors Project, the season celebrates 

fierce imagination and queer and trans artistry. 

19 November 2025 – San Francisco, CA: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) today announced its Spring 2026 exhibition season, a bold slate of exhibitions connected by ideas of identity, resilience, and liberation. Featuring solo exhibitions by internationally acclaimed artists Diedrick Brackens and P. Staff, and the group exhibition Conjuring Power: Roots & Futures of Queer & Trans Movements, the season reaffirms YBCA’s role as a leading Bay Area institution where art, activism, and creative expression converge.

“At a time when creative freedom is increasingly under attack, YBCA is committed to presenting work that embodies courage, conviction, and humanity,” said Mari Robles, CEO of YBCA. “This season of exhibitions at YBCA uplifts bold voices that demand we pay attention to a multiplicity of liberating truths. Whether directly confrontational or tenderly defiant, these artists speak with beauty and power.”

The Prince of Homburg by P. Staff

Curated by Jeanne Gerrity; Opening in January 2026

On view for the first time in the United States, The Prince of Homburg reflects on freedom, repression, and queer and trans identity through prints, sculpture, and a dreamlike video installation. Loosely inspired by Heinrich von Kleist’s 1810 play, P. Staff explores exhaustion as a response to structural oppression. 

Diedrick Brackens

Curated by Eungie Joo; Opening in March 2026

For his first solo exhibition in the Bay Area, Diedrick Brackens presents recent and new works that consider tenderness, migration, and connections with the natural world. Brackens’ jarring and psychedelic color combinations expose a changing aesthetic and signal a contemplative turn in the artist’s textile works.

Conjuring Power: Roots & Futures of Queer & Trans Movements

Curated by Tina Valentín Aguirre and Caro De Robertis; Opening in March 2026

A blend of art, archive, and imagination, this multimedia exhibition explores the resilient beauty, cultural richness, and fierce resistance of Bay Area queer and trans communities. The exhibitionfeatures works by Ester Hernández, Serge Gay Jr., Tanya Wischerath, Crystal Mason, and emerging artists from the Queer Ancestors Project. It also includes archival materials from the GLBT Historical Society and audio from Caro De Robertis’s I See My Light Shining oral history project. Through the prism of these visionary sources, Conjuring Power provides a fresh look at queer legacies and possible futures. 

“These exhibitions highlight the power of artists to transform material and narrative into striking visual worlds,” said Dorothy Dávila, Chief of Curatorial Initiatives at YBCA. “Whether through P. Staff’s immersive installation, Diedrick Brackens’ evolving textile practice, or the layered works in Conjuring Power, each presentation expands how we see and understand contemporary art today.”

Extending the season’s spirit of reflection and transformation, YBCA will also present End Point | Open Time, an immersive, multi-sensory performance installation by Liss Fain Dance. Presented in YBCA’s Forum, the installation’s architecture and sound score hold the audience and dancers inside an altered space. The dance moves through the structure and shifting light, revealing moments of solitude, exuberance and the humanity we recognize in each other. Shaped by Fain’s travels to the Arctic and by the stark clarity of Louise Glück’s writing, the work deepens the season’s focus on freedom, connection, and the imagination that gives meaning to both. 

Conjuring Power: Roots & Futures of Queer & Trans Movements is made possible with support from TheBob Ross Foundation.

YBCA programs are made possible in part by Blue Shield of California, the City and County of San Francisco, The Yerba Buena Gardens Conservancy, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Svane Family Foundation, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, James R. Lilienthal Trust, California Arts Council, Yerba Buena Partnership, Meridee Moore, Beard Family Foundation, Schwab Charitable Fund, Gaia Fund, David and Carla Crane Foundation, Andrew Skillman and Lydia Choy Charitable Fund, Amy and Hannah Eliot, Maria Kim, Tides Foundation, Wayee Chu and Ethan Beard, Amanda Minami, Klau Family Fund, Peter Rigano and Cody Hicks, Harvey and Leslie Wagner Foundation, Robert and Junko Kenmotsu, The San Francisco Foundation, The Ron Conway Family, and YBCA Members.

For more information visit www.ybca.org.

About YBCA:

Opened to the public in 1993, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) was founded as the cultural anchor of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens neighborhood. Our work spans the realms of contemporary art, performance, film, civic engagement, and public life. By centering artists as essential to social and cultural movement, YBCA is reimagining the role an arts institution can play in the communities it serves. For more information, visit ybca.org.

YBCA is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11:00am to 5:00pm. General admission is $10, and $5 for students and seniors. Admission is free every Wednesday. For tickets and information, visit ybca.org.

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Cruise of the Kings

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Cruise of the Kings

— by Bill “Mr. Ocean Liner” Miller

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Royal Voyage!  Even the exiled king & queen of Italy were together with their four children when they took part in the Mediterranean/Greek isles cruise purposely organized by Queen Frederica and her husband King Paul of Greecein 1954. It became known as the “Cruise of the Kings”.  It was attended by over 100 royals from all over Europe. But since the ship’s voyage began in Naples, the Italian royal family could only board later, in Corfu in Greece, as they were not allowed to set foot on Italian soil. Nevertheless, on this trip, their daughter Princess Maria Pia met her future husband, Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia.   After all, the cruise was partly meant by Queen Frederica to be “royal meet and match”.

The year-old, 5,500-ton Agamemnon (seen below on the left), built at Genoa in 1953 as wartime reparations to Greece, and its twin sister Achilleus, were created purposely for regular service across the Eastern Med – alternating from Venice to Brindisi, Piraeus, Alexandria, Limassol, Beirut, Alexandria, Piraeus, Naples & Marseilles and then reversing.   

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Accurately, the 416-ft long sisters were hardly overly luxurious, but they were comfortable. They were owned by shipping tycoon Petros Nomikos (the Nomikos Lines), a loyal friend to the Greek king and queen.   He canceled a regular voyage and chartered the 17-knot ship to the royal couple.  

The Second World War had “ruptured” relations between Europe’s royal families and so German-born Queen Frederica (she was a granddaughter of the last Kaiser, in fact) saw it an ocean-going “reunion”.   

Furthermore, as European tourism resumed, the strong-willed Queen wanted to promote Greece as a tourist destination.   The cruise was actually underwritten by monies the late shipownerEugen Eugenides (Home Lines) had left Frederica for the promotion of “international tourism in Greece”.  Frederica also saw the cruise as a way that enabled young European royals to meet & perhaps marry.

The two Nomikos passenger ships normally carried just over 400 passengers – 150 in first class, 150 in second class and 100 in lower-deck tourist class.   Each ship had 5 suites with full bathrooms and sitting rooms;   otherwise, only some of the remaining first class cabins had private shower & toilet only and none in second class. How the royals were assigned their accommodation is uncertain.  But there was no shortage on the guest list.

Altogether, there were 104 royals – some quite junior, others quite elderly – onboard.   The British royal family was among those that politely declined, but the likes of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (and the future Dutch queen, Princess Beatrix) happily accepted.  So did Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg.   The Swedish & Danish royal families joined with the former kings of Rumania, Bulgaria and aforementioned Italy.  

Then there were long lists of princes & princesses, dukes & duchesses and below.   Dining room table assignments were changed each day as well as well-planned shore excursions in each port. The full itinerary read:  Marseilles, Naples, Corfu, Rhodes, Santorini, Mykonos, Skiathos, Cape Sounion and finally Piraeus (for Athens).  

The cruise was dubbed successful and repeated two years later, but on sistership Achilleus.  

Post Script:   Just in case, you are interested further:  In 1958, the Agamemnon & Achilleuswere sold to Olympic Cruises, a new cruise firm created by another Greek tycoon:  Aristotle Onassis.     But it was rather shortlived:   Onassis pulled out of cruising in 1963 and the ships were sold to Dorian Cruises, also Greek.

The Agamemnon capsized at her Piraeus berth in 1968.   Later salvaged, she was laid-up and then scrapped in 1974.  The Achilleus was  soldto Kavounides Shipping Company in 1968 and refitted as their Orion (seen below).  It was scrapped in 1998.

Epstein’s “Take Down” of Trump and an Empathetic Alternative

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Epstein’s “Take Down” of Trump and an Empathetic Alternative
by Rev. John McFadden

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It’s reasonable to suspect that the Epstein files contain notes indicating that, in 1994, Jeffrey Epstein saw Donald Trump forcibly raping a 13-year-old girl in Epstein’s New York City mansion. That would qualify as confirmation for Epstein’s belief that he had information that would “take down” Trump.

The suspicion is reasonable, because credible evidence of not only the alleged rape but also Epstein’s presence during it exists. Court-filed depositions of an eyewitness to the alleged rape and what’s called a hearsay witness are key. There’s also a transcription of a 29-minute video tape of the alleged victim telling her story in the kind of detail that persuades police investigators. If this evidence does ruin Trump politically, he might be amenable to a compassionately intended intervention for him.

Challenges to the validity and presumed effect of the rape allegation exist, but I offer counters to them. To begin, a few District Attorneys I consulted and many lay people responded, “So what, Trump’s sexual violations are already well known.” But that misses the point that all the other cases are about adults, not a girl one year out of childhood. And violent rape of a minor is exponentially more inflammatory.

Some lawyers I consulted added another “So what,” saying that the statute of limitations on this case ran out long ago. But apparently unknown even to the alleged victim’s attorneys, the law in New York City states that the statute of limitations on forcible rape of a minor never runs out. And the possibility that the alleged victim could at any time make a claim to a prosecutor might move Trump to cut his losses and submit to what could be, in every sense of the word, an enriching transformation process.

Other critics dismissed this story when it first became known in mid-2016, partly because the alleged victim, known by the pseudonym Katie Johnson, was represented by an obviously underqualified real estate lawyer. But in October of 2016 when the claimant launched a civil suit against Trump and Epstein, an award-winning attorney filed it in the United States District Court of Manhattan, and another prominent lawyer agreed to litigate this case. Moreover, the judge accepted the case and set a December 2016 date for a status hearing.

Mainstream journalists did not report this allegation for good reason, good but not indisputable. Johnson had scheduled a press conference for November 2nd, 2016, but she cancelled it that day and, on the fourth, dropped her suit. And if claimants don’t submit to interviews, their allegations usually shouldn’t be reported. But it’s obvious that the combination of the publicly available depositions of her two witnesses and Johnson’s unusually detailed story has what police call “investigatory credibility,” the credibility needed to justify an expensive, time-consuming investigation. And perhaps on that basis alone, this allegation should be reported. Add that the accepted criteria for early published reports of claims against Harvey Weinstein appear to challenge the mainstream press’s decision in Johnson’s case.

Some observers even argued that Johnson might not be a real person, implying that her claim was entirely fake. But pictures of her appear in a well-known publication. In one of them, she was sitting beside Lisa Bloom, one of her legal advisors.

Without a claimant, of course, this allegation can’t be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by journalists. That’s what a managing editor of a liberal newspaper said he would to establish for him to risk publishing a story that threatens a president, especially a powerful vengeful one.

But perhaps the court of public opinion will be affected by a complete version of this report. Perhaps ordinary people will react emotionally. Placards like, “Don’ let Trump near your daughter,” might proliferate. This story might dominate the news enough that he wouldn’t be able to change the subject. He then might be so unable to govern that he’d be forced to end his presidency perhaps by impeachment or by his most influential backers.

The above evidence and argument is not intended to condemn Trump. That’s not the spirit with which I’ve investigated this story. On the contrary, I’ve just published a book, Enlightened Empathy: Relief of America’s Turmoil, that’s about unconditional empathy. (Incidentally, it’s peppered with citations for the facts and professional opinions presented here.) The initial point of confronting him with his disgusting behavior is to help him, not whip up self-righteous condemnations against him. Rather, I want to help him and the electorate take seriously how more troubled and troubling he is than even his most condemning critics say. (That’s mostly what Johnson wanted to do.) He recently admitted that he doesn’t think he qualifies to get into heaven, betraying that he might be more vulnerable to feeling guilty than people think, as I try to substantiate by quoting his other self-revealing statements.

My ultimate reason for analyzing him here and in my book is to make a case for the compassionate intervention for him that’s presented in the book. The intervention is modeled on the Alcoholics Anonymous-based intervention that’s been effective in rescuing abusive men and their family from their torment.

But is there any hope that an intervention of a massively defensive person would work? Real life stories of White Supremacists and criminal sociopaths’ transformations by means of empathy alone in my book help make this prospect worth considering.

Rev. John McFadden, is an ordained Presbyterian minister and Analytic Pastoral Counselor living in Noe Valley, San Francisco. with his wife, the artist Pattie Gerrie, and their three dogs, Santo, Lionel, and Lilly.  He is the author of the new book “Enlightened Empathy: Relief from America’s Turmoil.”