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99 People to Watch in 99

People A-C | People D-G | People H-L People M-P | People Q-S | People T-Z Araceli Santos Wade Randolph Hampton Musician Besides running La Belle Époque, the Saturday night drum space club at The Top, and the Haight Street record store Faster Bamboo, Hampton has also just released an absolutely stunning new album. Redheadedstepchild is a swirly, simmering brew of ambient jungle, psychedelia and luscious, wistful jazz. A quintessential San Francisco sound. (MG) Mark Herlihy Promoter The man behind the hugely influential Future Primitive Sound Session parties, Mark Herlihy has been enormously important in promoting experimental hip-hop. Thanks in part to him (and, of course, to the brilliant DJs who spin at his parties), San Francisco is now known as a mecca for new-school turntablism. (MG) Patrick Hinds Curator & Gallery Director, Limn Gallery The talented young curator and gallery director at the fantastically hip yet artistically serious Limn Gallery, Hinds is also the fashion and style editor of Limn's super-slick design magazine. Never one to rest on his laurels, Hinds has projects up his sleeve for the new year including the possibility of opening his own space. He possesses incredible vision, taste and artistic sense for someone so young. (CB) Erik Hopfinger Executive Chef, Backflip Luring the beauties away from the bar is a difficult task at stylish bars like Backflip. Getting waif wannabes to eat is another problem entirely. Fresh from the critically acclaimed--if short-lived--kitchen of Pair, Hopfinger is attempting dishes that can stand up to the cocktail in style. With his sweet and spicy prowess, he may turn this second-thought kitchen into a destination restaurant that incidentally has a bar attached. (MS) Zakir Hussain Jazz Musician The Indian tabla master's Asian Concepts in Jazz dazzled at last month's San Francisco Jazz Festival. His ECM releases, like Making Music, with Mahavishnu guru John McLaughlin on guitar and Jan Garbarek on saxes, blend the ragas of India with more traditional jazz sounds in the experimental vein of the San Francisco scene. (CK) Marne Lucas Jamalski MC & Musician A protégé of KRS-1 and a featured artist on albums by Boogie Down Productions, the Brand New Heavies and Dee-Lite, Jamalski is one of San Francisco's premier MCs. Although you can catch Jamalski live and direct at clubs throughout the city (and abroad), you can also find him chatting away on the recent Resin, Secret Broadcast and Positive Sound Massive compilations. (AN) Pamela Palma Jennifer Jensen Fashion Designer, Labyrinth Structurally complex and visually lush, Jensen's line of fanciful, ultrafeminine clothing conjures up the elegant extravagance and high color of the belle époque. In 1999 she'll be adding a similarly unique collection of affordable "retro-repro" rayon dresses taken from the '20s-'40s. (DR) Honey Jernquist & Lucy Karanfilian Fashion Designers, Phobos & Deimos Although perhaps best known for their line of one-of-a-kind hand-constructed clogs, Phobos & Deimos is at work on a second clothing collection, tentatively dubbed "Nordic Summer." The line, which merges the intriguingly contradictory elements of leisure ski wear and lightweight fabrics, lives up to the company's offbeat name (taken from the moons of Mars) and establishes the label as one of the best the city has to offer. (DR) Juliano Chef, Restaurateur & Screenplay Writer Founder of the first raw-food restaurant in the world, The Raw Experience (known today as Organica on Ninth Street), and the creator of the living pizza, chef, restaurateur and raw foodist Juliano is getting into Hollywood through the kitchen. He's working out a deal with Paramount Pictures to do a TV show about "raw," as well as a movie with New Line Cinema based on his idea about a chef as a super hero. This winter he plans to open his second Raw restaurant in Santa Monica. His book, RAW: The Uncooked Book, chock-full of recipes that don't taste like your lawn, will be released this May. (CP) Erin Katgely Laurent Katgely Chef & Restaurateur, Foreign Cinema World-class chef Katgely recently returned to San Francisco to open Foreign Cinema, with partners John Varnedoe of Bruno's and Michael Hecht. A triple-treat hotspot, with classic French restaurant, bar with live music and outdoor theater all in one, it's set to heat up the competition in the Mission's nightclub corridor starting in early summer. (DR) Franklin Avery Tina Keyes Cabaret Performer Now that the impresarios behind the fabulous, glamorous music theater group Enrique are moving to New York, we'll be relying on the diva of the local cabaret scene to keep us entertained. We expect another year of sophisticated, sexy underground performance from this raven-haired chanteuse. (MG) Killing My Lobster Besides being one of the most hilariously on-target comedy ensembles we've ever seen, Killing My Lobster also runs the Hi/Lo Film Festival, a celebration of high-concept, low-budget movies. They make movies, too--Killing My Lobster Caught on Film is almost as funny as their live act. With humor that veers wildly between the slapstick, the cerebral and the utterly absurd, they seem primed for success, fame and widespread adulation. We just hope they don't move to New York. (MG) Richard Klein & Riley John-Donnell Publishers, *Surface magazine Klein and John-Donnell are the publishers and creative directors of one of the world's fastest growing publications. Started in 1994 as a regional underground cultural magazine, *Surface has expanded in the past several years to include a worldwide scope and readership. Through the success of their publication, Richard and Riley have made San Francisco the headquarters of the "American avant-garde." (JS) Gay Lam & Cory Villano Retailers, Wishbone When asked to describe Wishbone, owners Gay Lam and Cory Villano were stumped. Filled to the brim with kitschy, distinctive and downright arty knicknacks, accessories and paper products, Wishbone is more a reflection of its owners' quirky sense of style than anything else. Having opened a second store in the inner Sunset after being in business less than three years (the first is in Hayes Valley), Lam and Villano are quickly finding themselves on their way to the self-professed goal of "global domination." (DR) Ledisi R&B, Vocal Jazz & Funk Singer Ledisi is one of the new breed of female soul singers who has the raw energy and full-throttled soul to really move an audience. Known for her scat singing and old-school-style wailing spiked with gospel and rock, Ledisi just may become the millennium's new Chaka Khan or Tina Turner. Ledisi and her band Anibade's debut, Bluelight, is due out in early spring of 1999. Ledisi also plans to record an album of jazz standards and originals tentatively called My Interpretations. (CP) Matt Leutwyler Writer, Director & Editor San Franciscan Matt Leutwyler is hitting the road with his no-budget movie Road Kill--about a blocked filmmaker who decides to make a documentary on a hit woman. He's also working the multimedia gulch as a partner in Graphical Planet with his brother Scott, late of Lucasfilms Ltd. and shopping a second movie, The Space Between Us, featuring appearances by Cracker's Dave Lowery and 90210's Vanessa Marcil. (LN) Beth Lisick Spoken-Word Performer A poetry slam champion and an opening act for Neil Young and Jim Carol, Beth Lisick is making spoken word a groovy, as opposed to tiresome, event. The author of Monkey Girl (Manic D Press), Beth performs nationally and locally with her jazz-inspired spoken-word band, The Beth Lisick Ordeal. With her recent CD release on DuNord Recordings, Beth-mania continues to grow at a hyper-Chia Pet rate. (AN) Ken Lowe Restaurateur Credit him with making good sushi stylish. After opening the relaxed and affordably priced Ace Wasabi in the Marina, Ken Lowe is setting his sights on a more fashion-forward and far more critical crowd--20-something gourmands. With its quadraphonic wall designs and full bar, Tokyo Go Go transforms ordinary rolls into visual and culinary triumphs. (MS) Steve Lucky & the Rhumba Bums Swing musicians Featuring Miss Carmen Getit, Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums deliver original jump swing and hot gems from the '40s and '50s. Their latest release, Come Out Swingin', on Rumpus Records features supermergatroid spins "Where's My Gravy" and "Do the Pup." (CK) People A-C | People D-G | People H-L People M-P | People Q-S | People T-Z [ San Francisco | MetroActive Central | Archives ]