Contributors

Veejane Acheson (HH #6) is handy with a hammer, a fountain pen, a needle, and a stinging retort. She has come around, in the fullness of adulthood, to the logic of the infield fly rule and the serial comma. She resides in the Boston metro area, and dodges both fly balls and hinky grammar almost daily.

When he's not camped out in screening rooms or at the AMC Empire, Ethan Alter(HH #8) lives and writes in Brooklyn. His reviews can be found at Film Journal International and Premiere.com as well as on his website, www.nycfilmcritic.com.

If you like to gamble, Matt Baab (HH #1 & 4) will tell you he's your man. You win some, lose some. It's all the same to him.

Michael Backus (HH #7) can only ever remember one joke, an elaborate visual thing involving an Arab, a rude parrot, the line "Moshe Dayan says to go fuck yourself," animal torture and an emphatic final gesture. He can't explain why this joke has stuck with him for so long, though in dark moments, he believes his inability to remember even one other joke explains a lot. Contact at mjbackus@gmail.com

Robert Birnbaum (HH #4) was double promoted in the 4th grade, was on the swim team in high school and was a philosophy major at university. He has been a night club manager, a short order cook, an Earth Shoe salesman, a secretary in a neurosurgical ward, a public school teacher, an advertising salesman and, of course, a taxi driver. He has been an adherent of a certain kind of antediluvian journalism that eschews publicist's lunches, industrial cocktail parties or shop openings as either the text or the source of stories. Most of the time. For the better part of two decades Birnbaum was the publisher of a now-defunct hip and smart downtown magazine in Boston. Since the early '90s he has interviewed over 500 hundred writers — from Martin Amis and Isabel Allende to Marianne Wiggins and Howard Zinn — and read over 1000 books. He continues to tilt at windmills while he tries to be a good father to his son, Cuba Maxwell, and a congenial companion to his blonde Labrador, Rosie. His email is reddiaz@aol.com

Legend has it that Tom Block (HH #2, 4 & 7) makes the meanest chili west of the Pecos. Some of his writings can be found at his Rotten Tomatoes Site

Joe Boucher achieved great success early in life as a producer of "The Simpsons" and "King of the Hill". The Joe Boucher (HH #4 & 5) who contributed this issue's crossword regrets that he is not that guy. But he's happy that he lives in Brooklyn on the banks of the lovely Gowanus Canal.

Brent Bozman (HH #1-3) resides in the semi-fashionable Maryland suburbs of DC. His hobbies include music, reading, reflexive cynicism and easy sarcasm. He continues to maintain a semi-regularly updated blog despite the growing uncoolness of that particular pastime.

Allison Byrnes (HH #4) was born and raised on Chicago's friendly south side. She's newly married, and shares her home with two dogs and one cat. For the past ten years she's spun records at local radio stations and clubs, getting paid mostly in liquor and candy. She likes taking road trips, drinking strong coffee, and has an extremely unhealthy interest in Dolly Parton. She can be reached at candlelight_vigil@hotmail.com.

Lee Caulfield (site designer) knows when to hold them and knows when to fold them. He's not quite clear on when to walk away and completely confused about when to run, however. He maintains the Lee TV site.

Had he lived in the days before the Internet, the television, and rock music, Hayden Childs (HH #1-   ) would most likely have been a dull and quietly desperate dirt farmer. As things turned out, he is a child of middle-class self-expressionist fantasies, and quite enjoys playing in an indie-rock band in Austin and writing for and editing The High Hat. His blog is From Here To Obscurity, and his email address is hayden@thehighhat.com.

William Crain (HH #5) was born on the Buffalo Bayou in Houston, Texas. He spent his early childhood in the 70's and 80's thinking about the music of the 1960's, until hip-hop caught his ear in 1984 via Run-DMC, UTFO and Kurtis Blow, pulling him into the present for roundabout 10 years. In these dark days of the 21st century he does his best to ignore the across-the-board awful music and culture of the last 10 years or so. And all that the unfortunate word indie has come to imply leaves him cold. He stays relatively sane by time traveling to various high and low points between the years of 1945 and 1995. He is perhaps the only living music writer with a deep and panoramic appreciation of DLR-era Van Halen, Bon Scott's work with AC/DC, and the Doors. A definite product of the second half of the 20th century spiraling towards obsolescence he has written about music for Perfect Sound Forever, Bomb, Tangents, Stolen Kisses and Pop Culture Press. To paraphrase Pete Townshend "he don't really mind how much you love him."

Emerson Dameron(HH #8) was born in Western North Carolina, and now lives in Chicago. His interests include the breaks, the classics and the good times. He can occasionally be found near dameron.wordpress.com.

Davis David (HH #2) lives in Southeastern Ohio or Southwestern Pennsylvania or Northern West Virginia.

McChesney Duntz, RAC (HH #3-4) is as real as you and me.

Milton Fazoo (HH #4) expects nothing of you. Nothing!

Phil Freeman (HH #2, 6, 7, 9) is the managing editor of Global Rhythm. He's also a freelance critic who writes about jazz and heavy metal, and some of the music in between, for Alternative Press, The Wire, The Village Voice, The Cleveland Scene, and Jazziz. He is the author of a widely-loathed book on free jazz, as well as a book on Miles Davis' least popular music, and is the editor of a forthcoming sequel to an anthology of music criticism, which will inevitably be weighed against its predecessor and found wanting.

Upon graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering, Kevin Fullam’s (HH #6, 8-9) logical career progression has led him to stints as a political speechwriter, pro sports analyst, and indie-rock DJ. He currently hosts the bi-weekly radio show Under Surveillance on Chicago’s WLUW that covers popular culture and politics. For more info, archived shows, and general rabble-rousing, visit www.undersurveillance.org.

Wakima Gamez’s (HH #9) writes for The High Hat. What more do you need to know?

Chris Hall (HH #2) spends most of his time sitting inert in a small apartment in Brooklyn. Occasionally he gets off his ass and writes things that probably shouldn't be written, much less read. He maintains a website at Literate Perversions and Chris Hall.

Although best known for his Academy Award-nominated role in The Original Contributors Page: The Movie, William Ham (HH #1-5) enjoys a rich life among the "little people" who like him, who really, really like him. He maintains a blog, Logonorrhea!!!

Paul Hernandez (co-editor #6-   ) lives in fear of his cat in Berkeley, California.

Steve Hicken (HH #2-   ) is a composer and writer living in Tallahassee, Florida. He has written for the American Record Guide, American Music Teacher, and the Tallahassee Democrat. He maintains a blog at Symphony X.

Andrew Hickey (HH #8, 9), between his full-time day job, his writing (Code Of Death, coming soon), his academic work, and his songwriting for The National Pep, does not have time to write a biography of himself.

Greg T. Hough (HH #1-4, 7 & 9) A family man in Oregon, now in his fourth decade of writing news and reviews for public consumption. No one's ever actually paid him living wages for said writing, however. Although he's clearly out of his league among the world-class stable of High Hat hotshots, please be a dear and don't rain on his little parade. Has a blog: Wrapped Around The Present.

Erika Jahneke(HH #7-   ) is a sometime crime fiction writer and all-the-time television obsessive who has a bad habit of falling in love with people and places that she only knows from the media. Her writing has appeared all over the Internet and in old-school paper magazines like Mouth and Kaleidoscope She is working on overthrowing the government, and a series of detective novels.

John James (HH #1-2, 4-6, 8-9) is a writer, researcher, and part-time agribusiness operative. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and children. You can reach him at mollysdad2002@yahoo.com.

Bronwyn Jones (HH #2-4) is a human rights worker and filmmaker who splits her time between New York and South Eastern Europe.

When Isaac Kelley (HH #6) was five, he wanted to be a paleontologist. When he was seven, he wanted to be a writer. Nobody at the time told him what the job paid. Now he’s twenty-three and wants to be an international man of mystery. He has a website, but does not maintain it very well.

Dana Knowles (HH #2-3 & 7) is currently a fugitive from justice. She is a cowboy; on a steel horse, she rides. She shot a man in Reno, just so she could explain to him exactly how he ought to die. In 10,000 words or less. Every sentence she writes commemorates another act of senseless violence, making you, the reader, complicit in her crimes. Allegations that she once answered to the name "Susan Atkins" are, as yet, unsubstantiated.

Marly Kurtze(HH #9) makes her High Hat debut with Issue #9, and for that the editors are pleased.

Jessica Langer (HH #5) is a 23-year-old transplanted Canadian. She lives in London, UK at the moment and spends half her time sitting in Tube stations, waiting for perenially delayed trains. The other half of her time is split between grad school, working as a marketing assistant and business writer, writing and publishing damn good poetry, playing video games and spending time with her equally game-a-licious (and gorgeous) husband and her cat Kaija. Please feel free to send all comments, questions, death threats and/or marriage proposals to her email address, though Jess cannot guarantee your continued bodily integrity if you choose to send her the latter.

Chris Lanier (HH #1, 3, 6 & 8) is a cartoonist, animator and writer living in San Francisco. For other bits of his writing and drawing, visit www.chrislanier.com.

Jeffrey Letterly (HH #6) is a real living interdisciplinary artist. Besides creating music, movies, books, dances, objects, and performances that combine all of the above, he is half of the sorrowful country band Urban Inbreed.

Andrew Levine (HH #2) is a precocious tyke who was still in diapers when Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade was released in 1984. He lives in New Jersey and claims to make a living selling Magic: The Gathering cards on his website. Sure, Andrew, whatever. His primary interests are playing board and card games, downloading music, complaining about the government, waiting for the Singularity, and making you feel old.

Raised in the vast wilderness of Georgia, Adam Lipscomb (HH #3) has made a successful. transition to the 21st century, and lives with his wife and children in Austin. Though employed as a Lowly Cubicle Slave in the telecommunications industry, Adam dreams of one day making all the sorry bastards pay for their slights. His daily exercise in foul-mouthed ranting can be found at A Violently Executed Blog.

Gary Mairs (HH #1-   ) tries to keep his job as a film teacher from interfering with his record collecting. Some of his writings can be found at his Rotten Tomatoes Site.

Erin McKean (HH #2) is the Senior Editor for US Dictionaries for Oxford University Press and the editor of the only magazine for word geeks, VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly. She is the author of Weird and Wonderful Words and More Weird and Wonderful Words. She lives in Chicago and cannot remember life before the iPod.

Shauna McKenna (HH #4, 7-   ) lives in Los Angeles with her daughter.

Milo Miles (HH #1) has been a music journalist for more than 25 years. He is currently a Contributing Writer for Rolling Stone magazine, a commentator on World Music and Reissues for NPR's "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," a staff writer for WBUR's New Media Arts Online and a regular contributor to The New York Times and the Village Voice. He is a former Music Editor at the Boston Phoenix and the on-line magazine at Rock.com. He delights in the processes of pop culture and the shape of shiny pop items more than any specific era or individual work. He decided to become a critic the day a friend pointed out the obvious: "You're going to be listening to that stuff all the time for the rest of your life. You might as well get something back for it."

Tim Miller (HH #5) lives in a barely mentionable neighborhood on the North side of Chicago, and spends his days lamenting his lack of any marketable skills. He spends his spare time studying the irrelevant, and conceiving ideas of such immeasurable brilliance that they never amount to anything. From time to time, he publishes a newsletter for similarly superfluous humans called Noxious Minutiae.

Jon Morris (HH #7) is, generally speaking, a cartoonist, possibly better known for his work on Slave Labor comics' Haunted Mansion or for his own comic strip, Jeremy, Just Turned Nine. He is also currently illustrating several other comic projects, role-playing games and errata, and doesn't write often, or at least when directly asked. See http://ape-law.com.

Maud Newton's (HH #2) maternal great-grandfather once killed a man with a hay hook in a Texas bar. Her writings can be found at her website: Maud Newton.

David Nordstrom's (HH #6 & 7) criticism has been compared to that of Bazin, Agee, and Deleuze (in each case to Mr. Nordstrom's disfavor). His first book, Against Polemics, hits bookstalls this spring.

Phil Nugent (HH #1-   ) maintains the blog The Phil Nugent Experience whenever the mood strikes him. He can be reached at pnugent1985@yahoo.com.

Eric M. O'Brien (HH# 6) is fully aware that his initials spell “emo,” and will not be held responsible for his actions should you insist on reminding him of this fact. He lives in Brooklyn with a woman and a cat.

Amongst other possible character flaws, Nate Patrin (HH #6, 8, 9) obsesses over cars despite not having a license, watches Japanese pro wrestling, used to draw funny-animal comix and thinks Thin Lizzy is more interesting than the Fall. But when it comes down to it, the man is pretty much up for damn near anything pop-culturally, brow elevation notwithstanding. Stuff not good enough for his regular freelance gigs at Seattle Weekly and City Pages can be intermittently found at his blog, Rebel Machine. He currently lives in sweet St. Paul, the hardest-luck saint of 'em all.

Like King Tut, Leonard Pierce (HH #1-   ) was born in Arizona and moved to Babylonia. Unlike King Tut, he has never been the ruler of an Egyptian dynasty or the subject of a hit novelty song by Steve Martin (though there's still time). A true Renaissance bore, he is capable of uninteresting conversations about subjects as varied as baseball, comic books, postmodernism, martial arts, and rap music. Of half-Irish and half-Arab extraction, Leonard will pretty much blow anyone up. He currently lives in Texas, but hopes that someday someone will trade him a villa in the south of France for a box of his old log entries. Until that day, they can be found at the Ludic Log.

Melissa Pittman (HH #5) is better known by her impressive physical prowess and athletic abilities, having taken home the gold in the Olympic 100-meter cotton ball toss as well as the founder of the world's first cross-country bowling league. She spends most of her leisure time pumping iron at her spacious suburban railroad flat and is currently working on her latest athletic endeavor of breaking the world's record for buying the most CDs in one year without actually getting to listen to them. Her blog can be found at Melpster.

Christopher Roberson (HH #2-4) lives with his wife and young son in a Chicago suburb. He maintains the Tea and Sympathy page.

Herb Robinson (site host) is a self-taught flagellant whose technical administration talents are only surpassed by his skills on the didgeridoo, an instrument he has never played nor even seen. His previous works include the children's books You Can Grow Up to be an Astronaut - If by "Astronaut" You Mean "Dishwasher at Fuddrucker's" and Where the Wild Things are Served as Entrees. In his spare time he throws his hands in the air and waves them like he just don't care. Mr. Robinson is worse than Hitler but better than He Hate Me.

Matthew Rossi (HH #5-8) is a freelance writer living in the Beyond Thunderdome of his own life, somewhere in the Seattle metro area. His first book, Things That Never Were, was published by Monkeybrain Books in 2004 and Bottled Demons, his next collection, will be out from Prime Books this summer. He used to wear a Superman t-shirt out in public but got tired of being called Superman from passing cars.

"Gus Sheridan" (HH #2) began as the nom de porn of a reviewer for Adult Video News in 1997, and has gone on to become said reviewer's online alter ego. He has written for AVN, AVN Online, Fetish, Java, Switch, Wide Awake, and Cat Fancy. His email address is gussheridan@yahoo.com and his collected wisdom can be found at Gus Sheridan's Cave.

Don Slutes (copy editor on #1-#5), a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration, organized shipments of food for starving millions in central Europe following the Great War. Eventually he was reincarnated as a Phoenix-based web developer.

R. Dutcher Stiles (HH #3) lives, loves and drinks in Austin, Texas.

Austin Swinburn (HH #1 & 4) lives in Austin, Texas, and has heard every concievable joke that could be made about that fact, so don't even try. Contact him at austinswinburn@hotmail.com and check out his blog: Oily Rags.

Michael Tomczyszyn (HH #3-6) is a former Nor'Easter who saw a mirage of a green light hovering over the Bay Area and hitched his wagon to a dream. When not engaging in various forms of rock-roll necrophilia, he writes fluff pieces for promising young e-zines.

Scott Von Doviak (HH #1-8) is a film critic for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. His first book, Hick Flicks: The Rise and Fall of Redneck Cinema is available from McFarland Publishers. His writing can also be found at his Rotten Tomatoes Site. He lives in an invisible blimp high above Austin, Texas.

Wolfgang Von Verkleidung (HH #1) lives somewhere on the North American continent. He is the Regional Manager for a large paper goods company and maintains a blog.

Mark Williamson (HH #1) was born either in 1960 or 1860, depending on if you believe him or law enforcement. He was either raised by the average dysfunctional family, or by the owners of a traveling minstrel show. He was an above-average student until puberty hit, at the age of 22, by which time he had been abusing hard drugs for several years. He has had numerous close brushes with death (including some he actually remembers) and is actually the epitome of the adage "Jack of all trades, master of none." He once had an Uncle Brother. Mild-mannered executive by day, at night he becomes a slightly-less mild-mannered guy who likes to eat Cajun food, listen to good music, and "play" his guitar. He remembers exactly where he was when Evel Kneivel attempted his jump over the Snake River canyon, and still dreams about smoking cigarettes, even though he quit eight years ago. He is happily married to a good woman, with whom he shares a fondness for cats.

Andy Wilson (HH #1, 3, 4, 7 & 8) is a self-professed music nerd and struggling leftist currently residing in Music City, USA (that's Nashville, TN, you philistines). He is married, has five cats in the household, and now holds a high-tech day job (obligatory cubicle included) which provides a modicum of wealth and security. Currently having amassed a portfolio of over 1,400 CDs, he is in the process of amassing more. Particular current interests include alt-Americana, power pop, and jazz. Passions include politics, micro-brew, and most things DIY. He will hire out anyone that can keep these damned privets to a dull roar.

Jean Carter Wilson (HH #3) is a fan of scuba diving, Aran knitting and anything played with a wah pedal. Other interests include the films of Donald Sutherland, aphid-free iris gardening and portraiture. Since early 2001 she has prayed without ceasing for the defeat of George Bush in 2004. She has a degree in painting from a major midwestern university, dabbles in political volunteerism and lives in Nashville with her husband and entirely too many cats.

Josh Wilson (HH #7) remains uncomfortable deciding who lives and who dies. Also, he maintains a website at http://www.buriedinthenoise.com/ for some reason.

Julie Beth Wood (HH #3) and her dog Nora abide in the wilds of Central Texas. They like chasing rabbits, roaming the Hill Country, and possess mad skillz at the game of 42. Julie maintains the Ill-Sorted Ephemera blog.

George Wu (HH #1-3, 7 & 8) eats, drinks, and sleeps movies. Fortunately, he lives in New York City, the best place in the country for disorders of this type. He also works on the occasional screenplay when inspiration strikes, but his muses don't slap him around enough. His writing can also be found at his Obsessed About Movies page.

Chip Zdarsky (HH #5) is the creator of Prison Funnies and Monster Cops. He has contributed to numerous publications including Vampirella Magazine and the upcoming Comics Festival! anthology which will be available for this year's Free Comic Book Day. Chip Zdarsky will also love you against all odds. Visit his website!

Aleksandar Zograf (HH #6): Serbian cartoonist and author of such works as Life Under Sanctions, Psychonaut, Dream Watcher and Bulletins from Serbia. Zograf has been active on the international scene since the early '90s when his work started to appear in U.S. comics anthologies such as Weirdo and Zero Zero and when Seattle's Fantagraphics Books published a few of his titles. Learn more about him at http://www.aleksandarzograf.com/

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