Kate Conger

Patrick Marks

​100 Profiles SF Weekly interviews 100 people in San Francisco arts and culture.

No. 84: Patrick Marks

Three decades ago, Patrick Marks set off from St. Louis on his bicycle, bound for Los Angeles. He took a haphazard route, riding through Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Oregon, before traveling along the Pacific coastline and arriving in San Francisco after four months of pedaling. Seduced by the city, he never made it to Southern California. He set up camp in Golden Gate Park and earned a living as a bike messenger. Eventually, he crossed the bay to attend UC Berkeley and work as a buyer for Cody's Books.

Today, Marks leads a more stationary lifestyle: He owns and operates the Green Arcade bookstore, sings in the lounge act Lars Mars and His Men, publishes noir literature, and lives in the same San Francisco apartment he's had for the past 27 years.

That's not to say he's lost his piquancy. He's maintained the same daredevil attitude that brought him halfway across the country on a bike. Despite Cody's closing, Borders' bankruptcy filing, and Barnes & Noble offering itself up for sale, he decided to open his own bookstore.

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Kristen Loken

Francesca Zambello rehearses with Andrea Silvestrelli (Hagen, left) and Gerd Grochowski (Gunther) from the Ring Cycle.

​100 Profiles: SF Weekly interviews 100 people in San Francisco arts and culture.

No. 85: Francesca Zambello

Tuesday marks the opening of the first of San Francisco Opera's three performances of Richard Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung. Commonly known as the Ring Cycle, this series of four operas requires superlative talent in all facets of the production, beginning with the director's coherent, probing artistic vision.

This Ring is in the capable hands of Francesca Zambello, a renowned director of theater and opera whose 27-year career includes productions at the Met, La Scala, and Covent Garden. It's telling that even someone with Zambello's résumé would only half-jokingly describe the Ring as a director's "Mount Everest, but also Opera Armageddon."

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Joie Rey Cohen

"I go in and out of season," says Daphne Gottlieb.

​100 Profiles:
SF Weekly interviews 100 people in San Francisco arts and culture.

No. 86: Daphne Gottlieb

Daphne Gottlieb is a divisive muse, one who doesn't swallow a glassful of nonsense just because the glass is not empty. A veteran of the performance poetry scene, she has recited cross-country with the likes of Lydia Lunch, Slam America, and Sister Spit, and also at South by Southwest and Lollapalooza (way back when that was something worth claiming). Gottlieb is also author and editor of nine books, the latest of which, 15 Ways to Stay Alive, was recently released by local indie favorite Manic D Press.

Gottlieb doesn't carry a notebook. She doesn't have a routine. Someone once suggested, referring to her catalog of books, that she must be prolific. But she denies this.

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Jessica Silverman surveys her gallery space.

​100 Profiles: SF Weeklyinterviews 100 people in San Francisco arts and culture.

No. 87: Jessica Silverman

Jessica Silverman was in her early 20s when she opened the doors to
Silverman Gallery five years ago, and she's probably still among the youngest gallery owners in San Francisco. While she might resemble some younger city dwellers who while away their days in Dolores Park wearing Ray-Bans and designer jeans, Silverman is a talented and driven curator who has received national attention for her Sutter Street space. Among the artists in her gallery is photographer and California College of the Arts professor Tammy Rae Carland, painter and collagist Luke Butler, and mulitmedia artist Christina McPhee. Silverman is also a member of the very active San Francisco Arts Commission.

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100 Profiles:
SF Weekly interviews 100 people in San Francisco arts and culture.

No. 88: Amick Boone and Kevin Hobson

Amick Boone and Kevin Hobson

​ Amick Boone and Kevin Hobson are the creators and hosts of Bang Out, which they've subtitled "A Quick and Dirty Reading Series." It has been in bimonthly residence at Amnesia in the Mission for more than two years -- a lifetime in a city that's arguably overpopulated with smart literary events. Beyond that, every Bang Out draws a huge crowd whose members manage to keep the bar pin-drop quiet. What accounts for the rapt attention and big turnouts? What has allowed Bang Out to avoid the loud-guy-in-the-back problem that plagues so many other literary events (especially those where alcohol is involved)?

For one, the concept: Boone and Hobson come up with a theme based on current events, cultural zeitgeist, and so on for each reading and put out an open call for submissions. Past themes include Toxic Assets, Tough Love, and BFFs. The idea is to encourage writers to produce new work that Hobson says is "a little more raw or not exactly 'perfect,' which gives the readings a bit of an edge that keeps things interesting."

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Amos Mac

Kirk Read

​100 Profiles: SF Weekly interviews 100 people in San Francisco arts and culture.

No. 89: Kirk Read

It's controversial, but I'll say it nonetheless: If you haven't seen writer/performance artist Kirk Read approach the mic buck-ass naked or take a live shit -- or, better yet, paint with said material -- then you haven't really experienced San Francisco.

"Whoa whoa whoa," you might say. "I don't need to see anyone take a dump outside of Dolores Park!" If you feel this way, then you definitely need some Kirk Read in your life. Read on.

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Sherril Jaffe

​100 Profiles:
SF Weekly interviews 100 people in San Francisco arts and culture.

No. 90: Sherril Jaffe

"Things are not going to happen the way you think they are, so you should keep your mind open," says author and teacher Sherril Jaffe.

We met at an extremely precarious time for us both: I was new to the Bay Area and almost literally penniless, without prospect, while Jaffe had lost her husband unexpectedly only several months before. I often missed my family dreadfully, but did not want to return home; even had I wanted to, 3,000 miles is an impossible distance when you can't afford to ride Muni. I needed family here. Jaffe, a professor of creative writing at Sonoma State University, needed family.

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Lindy Hough helped found Io magazine and North Atlantic Books, which she ran for 36 years.

​100 Profiles: SF Weekly interviews 100 people in San Francisco arts and culture.

No. 91: Lindy Hough

Lindy Hough is a gentle but insistent and sometimes prickly soul, one who changes like the lighting on a cloudy day: sometimes sharp, sometimes confined to the silvery edges, and whether you're temporarily thankful for the sun or the clouds, something of the afternoon flecks true and consistent. Originally a dancer, Hough began identifying herself as a writer at Smith College in Massachusetts at a time before MFA programs existed to encourage this.

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100 Profiles:
SF Weekly interviews 100 people in San Francisco arts and culture.

No. 92: Dan Lichtenberg

The first time I saw Dan Lichtenberg read I thought he was a little shit with an overpracticed bit and an attitude problem. Often, because of my bent for enthusiasm, I react this way to cynics. At the end of that 2009 reading it was announced that Lichtenberg, 23 at the time, was releasing his first book of poetry at an event later that week. I decided to go. Why? Because I really liked his writing.

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Chelsea Rae Klein

Self-Portrait 2009

​100 Profiles:
SF Weekly interviews 100 people in San Francisco arts and culture.

No. 93: Chelsea Rae Klein

Chelsea Rae Klein is an artist on a mission. Her fine art photography -- gorgeous, often unsettling dreamscapes -- focuses on brilliant, surprising explorations of bodies beyond place and time. Klein is also the founder, publisher and editor of Descry Magazine, a visual arts publication dedicated to supporting emerging artists with an emphasis on women, people of color, and queers. Her work with Descry has recently -- and organically -- expanded into a full-blown arts organization that expands the mission of the magazine to include grant and exhibition opportunities.

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