Gary Singh

Ten years ago I started my whole life all over again and became a writer. Before that, I spent a decade in college, resulting in two pieces of paper: a B.A. in Music with a concentration in composition and electro-acoustics; and an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies, which was basically a combo of music, new media art, and creative writing.

During those years, I explored every artistic discipline I could find: Music, dance, theater, computer graphics and extreme noise/free improv/sound/performance art/Dada/psychogenic instrumentalism. I also worked for The International Computer Music Association, which was then based out of San Jose State University.

Collectively, all of that imploded at the end of 1999, so I rose from the ashes and realized that the best way to make use of the zonked variety of my life’s experiences would be to write about it all. In short, writing/journalism chose me, not the other way around.

I've freelanced for several consumer and trade publications--IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications, Mabuhay Magazine, The Meeting Professional, and more--but my regular staff job is at Metro Silicon Valley, the alternative weekly newspaper of San Jose, California, where SILICON ALLEYS is my unclassifiable column, one man's warped take on the everyday goings-on in San Jose and Silicon Valley. You'll never know what it's going to be. People tell me these columns are like eating M&Ms -- you just gotta keep on crunching. A few examples you can click on:

UFO RESEARCH, ABSURDITIES OF SAN JOSE POLITICS, ADRIENNE BARBEAU, TOM LEHRER, BOOKSTORE PRANKS, THAI FOOD, TRAVIS BICKLE, LEIGH HIGH SCHOOL, PUNK ROCK, LOCAL HISTORY, SELF-AGGRANDIZEMENT AS PERFORMANCE ART, CIRCUS PEANUT-EATING CONTESTS, A TRIP TO OXNARD, DEAD PIGEONS, MORE PUNK ROCK, URBAN BLIGHT, ALEISTER CROWLEY, BEER, RECOVERY, or SOCCER.

The complete archives are HERE.

Many of my columns since April 2008 are crossposted to SAN JOSE INSIDE, a local political blog. Feel free to join the discussion. They desperately need some variety!

Aside from the weekly column, the sheer variety of stuff I've written for Metro over the years has been fun and bewildering. Keep checking back for periodic updates.

Some music stories: FLIPPER. EXODUS. DEATH ANGEL. THE TELL-TALE HEARTBREAKERS. THE COUNT FIVE. THE MARSUGI'S NIGHTCLUB REUNION.

A few art reviews from years past: GEISHA: BEYOND THE PAINTED SMILE, at the Asian Art Museum, SF. ASHES TO ASHES: THE BIRTH OF THE FUNERAL INDUSTRY, a show both Walt Whitman and Glenn Danzig would dig. THE GREATEST ALBUM COVERS THAT NEVER WERE, where Michael Ochs hired artists to paint their favorite hypothetical LP covers. FULL COVERAGE TATTOO SHOW, a killer San Jose-based show of back pieces. RARE BOOKS OF THE ROSICRUCIAN LIBRARY, one for the esotericists among you/us.

And here are some cover stories, new and old. Scroll down, find some you might like and click on 'em:

SUBURBAN COWBOY, where San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood hosts a legendary cowboy poet from Montana via Elko, Nevada. A rip-roaring, almost four-demensional tale.

THE 01SJ GLOBAL FESTIVAL OF ART ON THE EDGE, the new art & technology festival taking place in San Jose every two years. This was the 2008 version. See down below for the first one in 2006.

STATE OF GRIND A huge new skatepark opens in San Jose and I yak with Caballero and some of the other legends here. An immensely popular story.

SUSTAIN THE BRAIN They put electrodes on my head and convert the EEG to a piano track so I can sleep better.

BIDET, MATE Hysterical cover story about $5000 Japanese toilets with bidets built in. Asiaphile pervs will love this one.

TOUR THE OBSCURE. My anti-travel guide to the back alleys and urban decay of San Jose.

ART ON THE EDGE, The original story about the first ZeroOne Global Festival of Art on the Edge in San Jose.

FROM LSD to PCs John Markoff's book on how the '60s counterculture spawned Silicon Valley's personal computer revolution.

RUDY RUCKER. The cyberpunk science fiction pioneer and yours truly tour the streets of San Jose and Los Gatos, exploring the locales in his novels.

EARTH TO SAN JOSE How a group of diehard soccer fans saved the San Jose Earthquakes soccer franchise for one more season.

SOUTH BAY RIOT. An oral history of San Jose skate punk in the early 1980s.

HIT MAN Yakking with local author Barry Eisler about his thriller series that is now taking over the world.

SILICON VALLEY'S CHAPTER OF THE SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT. The first cover story for Metro that I ever wrote. Decadence as politics.

WHEELER DEALER When the Grand Prix first came to San Jose, I did a story on one of the chefs.

For seven years I've also done artist profiles for I.E.E.E. Computer Graphics & Applications.

And there's travel stuff like THIS or THIS.

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