Local exhibiting artist, Jyoti Alexander explores a new avenue with photojournalism for Midtown Monthly. Traveling all over the world to expand her eye, she continues to return to Sacramento and call it home.Currently she is working on her portfolio for art school. You can see some of her work at: www.myspace.com/jyotiology
Justin Allen is an active writer working on a novel about a dishwasher. He has written for the Sacramento News and Review a lot and the Midtown Monthly a little and self-published many zines and chapbooks. He would like to do more magazine writing and novel writing and also fiction writing for the screen and for comic books.
I enjoy hip-hop, futball, and writing. I like Sacramento, Land Park, Midtown Monthly, Macs, friends, and Peanut Butter with Honey on Sourdough. “Until my last breath. I won’t say. It’s too intense.” –Zinedine Zidane.
William Burg, writer
A neighborhood activist and historian, raised in the Sacramento region. He is the author of Sacramento’s Streetcars by Arcadia Publishing, and promotions director of Sacramento’s Norcal Noisefest. When not rabble-rousing on behalf of central city neighborhood groups or digging around for artifacts of Sacramento history, he works on a scale model of the Sacramento Northern Railway in his basement.
Ed was born in Sacramento and has long been interested in local and regional history and is particular to Gold Rush, maritime, baseball and brewing history as well and manuscripts, oral histories and travel narratives. He, like most people, collects lots of junk that sits around his house until he might need it some day. He likes pizza, beer, Holland, playing drums, dub, motorcycles and cats. He has worked at Beers Books since Christ was a corporal, and is also working at the California State Office of Preservation.
Sean Custer, photographer
A compulsive street photographer foremost; Sean balances time between jobs as a projectionist, Citroën mechanic, freelance photographer and assistant. He also has strong coffee, Kodak Tri-X, and Vintage Volvo habits. A native Sacramentan, he has sought ways to move away and consistently failed. So he lives in Midtown.
A State Net employee by day, Rick Ele hosts the “Art for Spastics” Mondays at midnight on Freeform KDVS 90.3 FM in Davis, where he has been a volunteer DJ for 13 years. The radio show’s companion blog is artforspastics.blogspot.com.
Lory Gil, writer
Lory is a journalism major at Sac State. This is her first gig in the “real world” of publication. The only other writing she has done has been for her cranky professors. In her free time she plays WoW, D&D and DS. She also reads comic books and watches ‘Lost.’ Just in case you weren’t getting the hint, she’s a total geek, and that ain’t no 1.21 gigawatt jive.
Born in the great Midwest, Rachel loves Sacramento in all of its self-defeating nature. A poet, a hedonist and a preschool teacher, she’s called Sacramento home for five years. Twenty-first street serves as her super highway and sometimes she is surprised to find a world outside of the grid.
My grumpy grandpa once issued the memorable quote “eatin’s just a habit” (he preferred his nutrition in Silver Bullet form), but I will have to respectfully disagree with him on that point. I will eat anything that comes my way but I prefer it to be in sausage form. If you think J St. is the center of food culture in this town then you have been woefully misinformed, and I would like to introduce you to the culinary delights of West Sac, and the Boulevards Franklin, Folsom and Stockton. Let’s go!
Michele has recently returned to her beloved Sacramento, where she scours local stores for the most interesting and delicious wine available. She gained her expertise on the subject from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust, wine-oriented travels, industry experience, and most importantly, by drinking wine from all over the world. She shares her insights and experiences on her blog, Sniff & Quaff [sniffandquaff.wordpress.com]. In short, she loves wine and wants you to know all about it too.
Sacramento native Dani Kando-Kaiser has been a freelance music and film writer for the last ten years. She and her husband ran Omnibus Records, which now has morphed into the Mt. St. Mtn. label. Before writing for the Midtown Monthly, she was an editor and political writer for the state’s largest lobbying group.
Daniel Macht, writer
Daniel graduated from UC Davis and worked at a coffee shop to support his writing habit, until that shop closed down last month. Now that he has more free time—and less money—Daniel can reflect on childhood memories from growing up in Sacramento. One pretty awesome one was when his high-school band Clovis got to open for their heroes, Far, at Bojangles. It was sweet not to get booed.
Nick lived for a couple years in Grenoble, France, around the corner from a cinema called Le Méliès—a state-funded, one-screen art house. He now lives in East Sac, works for SN&R and enjoys softball, bike riding, live music, and the Oakland A’s. Read his blog, FFT, at filmfortourists.blogspot.com.
A California native, Josh has lived in downtown Sacramento for the past decade and has been an occupational writer and journalist dating back to his college, grits, fried chicken and obit days in Atlanta. Both a vocal and silent observer of the ‘Tomato, Josh works for the government by day and uses the rest of his time to pursue interests, including reading, writing, road biking, backpacking, classic Vespas, counting beer bubbles and fixing up the 1913 Craftsman bungalow he shares with his wife, mutt y el gato.
Emily has lived in Sacramento for 4 years. Before that, she lived in Manhattan. Other than writing (poetry included!), she likes rain, the color black, city living, and e.e. cummings. Much to the despair of her roommates, she also likes yelling out the answers to Jeopardy and listening to musical soundtracks. She got her BA in English from Saint Joseph College, a Catholic women’s school in New England.
Andy Wood, writer
Andy was born in Maine, grew up in Oregon, and has called California his home for the past 14 years. He enjoys hiking with his wife Kim and their dog Meadow around their home in Greenwood, and has been known to home brew beer on the occasional weekend.