Adrian Roberts
I'm the fiery-dreadlocked androgynous rock star freak from San Francisco your mother warned you about.
Actually, that's not true. Moms love me.
I like to do stuff. I sing, dance, throw parties, DJ, write, do graphic design, and lots of other stuff. With my spouse and partner, the Mysterious D, I DJ and throw a monthly mashup party – in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City – called Bootie, the first all-bootleg mashup club in the United States. We create our own mashups under the name A plus D, and were named 'Best Alternaqueer Club Promoters' in the Bay Guardian's Best of the Bay. We also DJ an eclectic mix of electro, dance rock, indie, and hiphop, at various parties and one-offs around San Francisco.
Obviously, I like music a lot. I'm also the lead singer for Smash-Up Derby, the world's only mashup rock band. I used to be the lead singer for the infamous San Francisco glitz rock band Blue Period. In 2000, we won the SF Weekly Wammie award for 'Best Rock Band.' The following year, we started club Glitz, which gave me my first taste of club promotion. In 2003, as the band began winding down, I started DJing and throwing clubs. I'm the kind of person who always needs to have a project.
I also have a 'real job' – or at least one that helps pays the rent – namely that of being the Art Director for the Bay Area Reporter, the oldest gay/lesbian newsweekly in the country. This mostly involves me sitting in front of a Macintosh computer at my office 2-1/2 days a week, making stuff in QuarkXPress and Photoshop look pretty.
Last but not least, I'm an old-school Burning Man vet, the editor and publisher of Black Rock City's favorite alternative newspaper, Piss Clear. I love the desert – even when there aren't 35,000 people there, dressed in funny costumes and building a "pretend city." D and I love to rent a car and drive off into the desert, every chance we get -- which, given our hectic schedules, unfortunately isn't much these days. Someday, we'll probably move to Lone Pine, California. Anything else? Oh yeah, I collect old Atari 2600 videogame cartridges, and I have a collection of over 600 of them. It used to be kinda geeky, but now it just seems retro chic. Kinda like me.
You can e-mail me at: adrian@adrianroberts.com