Excerpt from the book, pages 61-62

I always had wanted to live IN San Francisco, even though I went straight to NYC after graduation. Five years later, I was ready to try. I mean, San Francisco. Cyber city. Rave city. Cloud City. When the fog comes in over the hills and sifts in between the Victorian houses, immersed in flowers or other sub-tropical ecology, chilling on a Tuesday, or any day, afternoon.

Despite the famous quote falsely attributed to Mark Twain that the “coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco,” someone else might describe the weather as perfect. It’s never THAT cold, but you always need a jacket, which is cool because it means you have pockets, perhaps many pockets you can use to carry stuff: floppy disks, flashlights, food, twine, business cards, a pipe, markers and pens.

And in the 1990s, San Francisco was cheaper than New York. Really, it was! So on my New York money I could live pretty well in San Francisco.

My friend DC had lived in San Francisco in the 1980s, and knew some people there who needed a roommate in their house in Bernal Heights. They were video/computer artists too, so it could be a good fit. I moved in with Rose-X, and our other roommate, JG, who was learning to play the didgeridoo.

In San Francisco, I got my first email account, at The WELL, the Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link. I have kept this email all these years and it has come in very handy.

I also joined the SFnet, a hip scene of people posting on bulletin boards from various coin-operated terminals in bars, clubs, and coffee shops around San Francisco. While creating my first account on SFnet, the prompt asked me: User Name? I typed in “Bigtwin,” and almost hit enter, but I stopped. I hit the delete key, and instead typed in “Sheep in an Anthrax T-Shirt.” That name, and various other “sheep” names, became my handle. SFnet exchanges were some of the greatest improvised comedy, sarcastic discussions I have ever participated in.

San Francisco is a very fun city. Great restaurants, beautiful scenery, and an amazing club and rave scene. Soon after I got there, I attended a Wicked Full Moon Rave at Bonny Doon, a sandy beach in a cove along the Pacific where guys would take a generator, turntables and speakers and throw an all-night party, incredible!

Such was my life and headspace in the Fall of 1993. Here we come back full circle to the day my roommates suggested inviting Richard to my Technoromantics party.