Eschewing most conventional routes and ways, Gary's life has been almost exclusively molded by his inability to say no to anything (and then be first in line for seconds). Always looking for new things to obsess over, he finds talking about himself in the third person disturbing.
D.S. Black is a besieged San Francisco-Mission resident, also known as a renter. When not fighting incipient landlord-induced homelessness, he works in academia and is a seasoned Santa Claus. On the side, he likes to collect motion-sickness bags and frequent-flier miles.
In a cover story in Newsweek magazine, Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr. was called one of the 25 most dynamic mayors in America. A New Yorker magazine profile described Mayor Brown as the consummate example of democracy in action. And a Washington Post cover story announced that Mayor Brown held the keys to San Francisco. Mayor Brown is regularly described as one of the two most influential politicians in California-along with the state's governor-and as perhaps the most consequential African American elected official in the United States.
Edward Champion
Edward is a 97 year-old walrus who sometimes answers to the name of Jimmy and ghost-writes novels for William Shatner. Carefully spawned by a gang of roving toasters, Mr. Champion has been trained to make films, play really bad covers of Ramones tunes on his guitar and use a computer. Unable to communicate to the world through his mouth, Mr. Champion relays his strange thoughts through ASCII forms of random obscenities and garbled language. Mr. Champion has a devoted fan following in Anchorage, Alaska, and lives on a diet of raw fish, motor oil and Dramamine.
edchamp@slip.net
Single; Male; Lesbian; 32 and more imperfect than originally thought; Alcoholic; Recovering Buffalonian; Male pattern baldness; Child of Long Overdue Divorce (CLOD);
I like sunsets, hugs, and distance;
I dislike impeachment, the word "basically", and call waiting.
Maurice Evans is currently trying to make himself a better person, although he is not convinced this is possible. He divides his team between designing super complex (and hot) Easy Bake ovens and neglecting his mental health. He has an endless, unquenchable thirst for bright, shiny objects and can be found scouring beaches and raiding birds' nests everywhere.
30 is the first novel written by Philip Golden, who (like the character in the story) has pissed away the past 15 years of his life playing guitar and singing in rock bands. He has also written two screenplays that have never seen the light of day. Currently, he can be seen acting out as the lead guitarist in the San Francisco rock band BuddhaKowski.
Jim has the distinction of being part of an exclusive group of "almost natives" to Silicon Valley but this has been attributed just as much to an aversion to packing as to the pull of high-tech success. Jim has been known to write software (a Propeller Head), sell software (a Big Head), and market software (an Air Head) and he's been a part of every phase, stage, and mood swing in the computer business since a MIP required a cabinet big enough to sleep six. He also has a music and Film Scoring business and is developing a software product with his daughter.
james-griffin@worldnet.att.net
Kiki Hernandez lists some of her influences as: Nico, Man Ray, Edie Sedgewick, Colette, Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, and Brigitte Bardot. Not to mention fictional characters Barbarella, Holly Golightly, Ziggy Stardust and Emma Peel. Go figure. She is in a creative long-term relationship with San Francisco after leaving her first love, New York City, seven years ago. Kiki combines her main passions for music and the Internet by writing for web zine www.coolgrrrls.com. She has a penchant for wearing glitter, maribou feathers, fake fur, peddle pushers, and Puma sneakers. Troll dolls, Mitchell’s ice cream and a good pedicure rank high on her list too.
Drew is a native of Southern California, although he does ask that you please don't hold that against him. In addition to staging cockfights for fun and profit, Drew enjoys scouring the city for the best smoothie ever. Look, we never claimed that he was interesting....Ohhh, be quiet Drew.
Cheryl has lived all over the world, and fortunately for you chooses not to bore you with the drunken details (Guinness tastes the same wherever you go - you can just get into more trouble in Istanbul). She currently resides in San Francisco because that's where she was when the money ran out. She divides her time between cursing yuppie scum who run over her motorcycle in the Mission and writing about yuppie scum who run over her motorcycle in the Mission. Other than that, she is a fairly cheerful individual who devotes a lot of time and energy to being guilt-free, unemployed, overeducated, under-welmed and somewhat opinionated. When time and money permit, she loves skiing, which is about the only thing that she does "above average."
John Mulligan was born in Kirkintilloch, Scotland, in 1950, into a home with ten children. After his family emigrated to the U.S., Mulligan enlisted in the air force. Within weeks of turning eighteen and while still a British citizen, he was on his way to combat in Vietnam. On his return to San Francisco after his tour of duty, he suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and was homeless for more than ten years.... Mulligan attended a veteran's workshop run by the celebrated author, Maxine Hong Kingston, who recognized his extraordinary talent and helped him edit the manuscript of Shopping Cart Soldiers.
John won the PEN/Oakland Award for best novel in 1998.
Jackie (aka Jack, Jackal, Blackjack, Jackhead) Sun
By day: maniacally gum-chewing Silicon Valley software licensing slave
By night or weekend: Hayes Valley-drooling, Pac/Pres Heights-aspiring, Mission-crawling, Snoe Valley-nesting, and SOMA-slumming, wannabe hipster, and pleasure scout
Where you can find me: fighting for parking, Caffe Greco, waiting for Jackson Fillmore seats, slurping noodles in Japantown, marvelling at Josh and Pat's keenly professional Orbit-Room barkeeping, trudging up and down SF hills while overcome with renewed sweaty passion for this fair city
Ambition: become the trendoid writer (think Coupland) for the first post-millennium decade, achieve first-name familiarity with all the relevant bartenders in this town, hosting seasonal cheesy fondues for deserving folks
Beauty pageant dream: a San Francisco that's still alive and hopping post-midnight, a Bay Area liberated by topnotch public transportation systems from freeway traffic gridlock (dare I dream?)
Drink of choice: ultra-dry Bombay Sapphire gin gimlet served up
Annie
While the whole world wakes up and froths about the World Wide Web, others amongst us have had, over the years, a far more uh, personal, nay, intimate experience with "the web." Indeed, the web might very well have been the very foundation for a select few. The base, if you will. The footing, perhaps. Ground zero. Annie, with her webbed toes, would be one of those fortunate few. Oh, that is just the (inverse) topping for this Erykah Badu Aficionado. Annie has been many things in her short time. In the past few years she has been the inspiration for the hit TV show "Fame", a former Miss Morocco, Friend of esteemed judges, confidante of Miss Rona Barrett, and an unapologetic Bison Advocate. While that might sound a little too "too," it is never enough for this dynamo vibrating between the poles of stress and relaxation. Annie is not too strong and not too proud to offer another serving of a beer float (12oz beer, wad of ice cream, yum-yum) or proffer another bowl of orange circus peanut nacho dip (just like it sounds). Capricorn? And how. Venus yea, but Mars knows too. No she doesn't swim faster, but the webs, like everything else about Annie, make everyone feel good and happy.
The Hat, otherwise known as Hat Chris to his friends, hails from Springfield, Massachusetts. It doesn't seem very likely that he's going to return there any time too quickly. Which is fortunate for us. For serious fun, we hear that Hat Chris does strategy stuff over at Kaiser in Oakland. Apparently they detected his quest for organised order during his interviews. For real fun, Hat Chris does lots. Most notably, he bops. Just not with those who are into handbag dancing.